Immigration Reform Advocates and Government Officials Encourage Asian Community to Seek Relief in DACA

On Thursday, July 28, advocates of immigration reform and White House officials gathered to discuss the significance of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for the Asian American Pacific Islander community and to encourage those eligible to apply for the program.

A similar program was announced by Obama via executive order in 2014 called Deferred Action for Parents of American and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA, that would have offered protection from deportation and a renewable three-year work permit to parents with children who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The program, however, was blocked by the Supreme Court’s 4-4 ruling, resulting in a non-decision that affirmed the lower court decision to block the program.

The gathering was held about a month after the Supreme Court’s non-decision and advocates expressed that they wanted to reassure community members that the 2012 DACA program is still in place.

According to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), over 1.1 million people in the U.S. are eligible to apply for DACA. The 2012 DACA program allows eligible undocumented individuals who came to the United States as young children to receive work permits and temporary exemption from deportation.

Within the AAPI community, over 130,000 undocumented individuals are eligible to apply for the program, according to a 2014 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, only 14.6 percent of those eligible have applied.

“We want to know why these numbers are so low,” said Reva Gupta, Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

There are approximately 138,000 undocumented AAPIs in Los Angeles County, 16,000 of whom are eligible to request DACA, according to MPI. The largest populations come from the Chinese (3,000), Indian (1,000), Filipino (3,000), and Korean (6,000) communities.

“For DACA recipients, two out of three have found jobs with better pay and over half have found work that better aligns with their education and training. Wages among DACA recipients have increased by 45 percent,” Gupta said, referring to a recent survey by the Center for American Progress and the National Immigration Law Center.

Martha Flores, Chief of Staff at the Los Angeles District United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) warned applicants from seeking assistance from those perpetrating immigration scam, encouraging those interested to seek legal advice from authorized personnel and to visit uscis.gov for free resources.