DACA

Overview

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) allows young immigrants who grew up in the U.S. to seek temporary protection from deportation and to have the ability to work. For over a decade,  DACA has transformed the lives of more than 834,000 young people.

The road to DACA was hard-fought. Undocumented youth mobilized and organized for years before it became a reality in 2012. Since then, DACA has received broad support, becoming arguably the most popular immigration program in recent U.S. history.

Despite—or perhaps because of—DACA’s profoundly successful impact, anti-immigrant politicians have relentlessly attacked the program since its inception. As a result of these attacks, DACA recipients are forced to live their lives in chronic uncertainty.

Why It Matters

DACA recipients and immigrant youth need the permanency and stability of a pathway to citizenship. Despite many promises over the past decade and broad popular support, Congress has yet to deliver permanent protections or a pathway to citizenship.

At the same time, DACA is under threat in court, with an ongoing legal challenge led by Texas already resulting in a freeze on the granting of DACA initial requests.

Living life in two-year increments and from court decision to court decision takes a heavy toll on current DACA recipients and can have a destabilizing impact on entire families and communities.

Our Work

From drafting the original bipartisan DREAM Act in 2001 to successfully defending DACA against the Trump administration’s unlawful attempts to end it, including at the Supreme Court in 2019, NILC has been at the forefront of this fight for years, alongside immigrant youth and other partners.

Now and until we win, we will continue to defend DACA and fight for a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and other immigrant young people, and ultimately the 11 million undocumented immigrants who call this country home.