Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Former President Obama’s 2012 Executive Order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), altered the economic and social landscape for nearly 800,000 undocumented people living in the U.S. DACA is an administrative program that provides deferred action from deportation for eligible youth and authorizes individuals to work lawfully in the U.S for two years. Research has documented positive and significant effects of the program on economic and health outcomes, (Amuedo-Dorantes & Antman, 2016; Giuntella & Lonsky, 2018; Patler & Whitney, 2018; Pope, 2016; Venkataramani, et al., 2017 ), but few studies have looked at DACA’s impact on education (Amuedo-Dorantes & Antman, 2017, Dickson, Gindling, & Kitchin, 2017; Hsin & Ortega, 2018). By according relief from deportation and increased opportunities to access and navigate the labor market, participating in higher education becomes even more of an option to increase undocumented people’s human capital. Using data from the 2007-2017 American Community Survey and a difference-in-differences approach, I evaluate the impact of DACA on the college enrollment of undocumented youth. I also examine whether the work behaviors (number of hours worked, full-/part-time status, and occupation) change following the introduction of DACA. I use foreign-born non-citizens from countries with high DACA take-up rates as a proxy for undocumented students. Preliminary results indicate that DACA had a positive effect on college enrollment on eligible DACA students compared to the non-eligible DACA students and Latin@ documented students. I also find evidence that DACA-eligible students did work more hours post policy. The implications of study provide evidence for a temporary-status change immigration policy, but also demonstrates a need for a comprehensive immigration reform for the thousands of Dreamers in the U.S.