Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order was a milestone in the hotly contentious immigration debate. DACA, signed by the Obama Administration in the summer of 2012, granted temporary reprieve from deportation and work authorization for eligible youth. Given its recent implementation, little work has been done to assess its impact on DACA eligible immigrants. The purpose of this study is to fill in this gap by investigating the effects of DACA on labor market outcomes, more specifically the employment and income of Latino DACA recipients. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the Current Population Survey we evaluate a triple-differences model. The results reveal DACA disproportionately increased labor market earnings for DACA eligible women relative to DACA eligible men. This result suggests DACA and possibly similar policies play a positive role in reducing gender income disparities among the immigrant population. Our finding poses important implications for policymakers, public policy research, employers, and for immigrant youth and their families.