The Future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: What We Learned From The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

Abstract

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, is a program that provides young undocumented immigrants temporary reprieve from deportation. Due to changes in policy and feelings toward immigration in the U.S. this program has been threatened to be removed affecting hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants. It is important that under the threat of termination of this program we analyze whether or not the program could be successful ad benefit the economy. I do this by comparing DACA to a similar immigration policy: The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, IRCA. This policy provided a path to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants. The results of IRCA and the characteristics of the beneficiaries of the legalization program indicate that extending DACA to provide a path to legalization could also have similar results, if not better, than those of IRCA.