Graduating into Uncertainty: Unauthorized Immigrant Students in U.S. High Schools

The U.S. public has for decades expressed sympathy for the situation of unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Yet today, unauthorized immigrant students approaching the end of high school face even greater uncertainty. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is not an option for most current high schoolers, immigration enforcement has intensified in communities across the country, and some states are retreating from policies that would allow these students to pay in-state college tuition.

In this context, understanding the number and characteristics of unauthorized immigrant children who are reaching the end of high school and graduating from K-12 schools each year is important—for federal and state policymakers, educators, and community members alike. This fact sheet leverages a unique Migration Policy Institute (MPI) methodology that permits assigning legal status in U.S. Census Bureau data to shed light on this population. It provides estimates of these students’ top countries of birth, states of residence, and more.

MPI estimates that close to 90,000 unauthorized immigrant children reach the end of high school each year, with about 75,000 graduating.