DACA opened doors to education for some, but many students still face obstacles

“I was initially very disappointed,” Camarena said. “I just started thinking about if I had a different legal status here I could be somebody much more important — maybe have a better career.”

Her mom was sad. Her dad was proud that she thought of the family business and was thinking practically.

The political immigrant advocacy group FWD.us estimates there are 600,000 students like Camarena without legal status in U.S. K-12 schools, including about 8,000 in Colorado.

This June, advocates celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the creation of DACA, and the impacts it’s had for many. DACA is a program that offers work authorizations and temporary relief from deportation for people who were brought into the country illegally as children.

Before the creation of DACA, young people without legal status described hitting demoralizing barriers in high school. Students lost their motivation as they realized college was out of reach without typical access to financial aid or in-state tuition. Other opportunities including internships and trades that require professional certifications were also off limits.

When legislative efforts to help these students stalled, President Barack Obama created DACA through an executive order.

Some recipients are now parents themselves. The impact of status reaches beyond the recipients. In Colorado, it’s estimated that 20,000 U.S. citizens live with DACA recipients.

Educators and advocates have anecdotal stories showing that the creation of DACA helped motivate some young people to have hope for the future and to pursue education. One of the requirements to apply is to either be in school or have a high school diploma or GED.

Researchers published a study in 2019 based on findings from the National UnDACAmented Research Project at Harvard University that tracked the impact of DACA across many years in hundreds of recipients. The study found that among students who had dropped out of high school, earning DACA status motivated them to reengage in their education. Many others went on to complete college degrees and started careers.

Marissa Molina, the Colorado state director for FWD.us, herself was once a DACA recipient. She was in college, with her parents paying her out-of-state tuition, just before DACA was introduced.

“Because I had this huge tuition burden, I was going to drop out,” Molina said. “I didn’t see a point of continuing because I had no prospects to ever be able to use what I was learning. For me, DACA was truly transformational.”

Unlike most, Molina has since found an unrelated path to adjust her legal status.

DACA itself gives recipients temporary status, two years at a time, but doesn’t provide a way to earn permanent residency or citizenship.

Since former President Trump first tried to end DACA in 2017, the government has only been allowed to process new applications for limited windows of time. Camarena applied during one of those windows last year, but her application hasn’t been processed.

Although the Supreme Court handed Trump a defeat in 2020 and restored DACA, a legal challenge again put processing of new applications on hold.

This time, states in a case led by Texas argue that DACA was flawed from its inception, created without going through legal and administrative procedures, and that it’s harming their states. A federal judge agreed. The Biden administration has appealed the case and oral arguments were heard last month.

A decision is expected this fall, but advocates aren’t hopeful. Instead, they are pressing Congress to pass legislation to broaden and enshrine a new pathway for legal status for those who have been brought into the country as children.

Because the original rules for DACA have not changed — including having been in the U.S. before 2007 — FWD.us estimates that the majority of undocumented students in U.S. schools now wouldn’t be eligible for DACA even if new applications were being processed. This year’s high school seniors were born in 2004 and 2005, and if eligibility isn’t expanded, soon no high school students will qualify.

Although the program is in jeopardy, Molina believes that young people even without legal status now have more expectations than she did growing up.

“There’s students now who have never known a world without DACA,” Molina said. “We live in a different space. Particularly for Colorado. Our state has truly understood this issue and has tried to do better and do right by our students. We have access to in-state financial rates. We continue to hear positive messages and our governor speaking up about DACA. It might be hard for a young person to imagine a world without that in place.”