DACA, or  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was established in June of 2012 by the Obama administration as an administrative relief for immigrants(known as DREAMers) who came to the United States as children (under 16) to receive a two year period of deferred action from deportation, as well as work authorization. 800,000 people were protected under it, with youth from numerous countries, from Mexico to as far as South Korea. Millions more were eligible. 

DACA quickly established itself as a nationwide program with far-reaching significance for its recipients, their families, and communities. Individuals, as well as the economy, prospered under it for years.

Then in 2017, the Trump administration repeatedly attempted to stop the program, refusing to take new applications, and announcing a plan to phase it out, resulting in public outrage and ultimately, a ruling against it from the Supreme Court. But the damage was done. Thousands of immigrants were affected in the process, with 43 immigrants deported within two months. It would be only three years later, in 2020, that the Supreme Court would make the official decision to reopen DACA.

In January of 2021, President Biden worked to reverse Trump’s immigration agenda, one of the key immigration-related actions he took on his first day in office being to protect dreamers. The Biden administration also appealed a ruling in Texas that declared DACA illegal in July of 2021. Biden then directed the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Attorney General, to take all appropriate actions to preserve and fortify DACA, consistent with applicable law. It is now published in the Federal Register. 

But many are saying that he should be doing much more. This new DACA proposal does not allow DREAMers to apply for work authorization, and the rule of not offering a path to citizenship remains. Deferred action can be taken away from people easily, while legal status cannot, and there has been a call for a permanent solution under Biden. Critics say that DACA should expand to help more people and to offer them more benefits, especially after a year of heavy disapproval of his immigration policies and progress that failed to deliver on his October 2020 promise during the last presidential debate of dreamers being “immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and be put on a path to citizenship.” 

But 2022 shows new promises of change. In his State of the Union address, Biden said that he will continue and build on his support for immigration reform. He will bring in more dedicated immigration judges to speed up the processing of cases, help to bring in more refugees, and it’s predicted that later in the year he will also help with the USCIS green card application backlog. For DACA and Dreamers specifically, he plans to provide a “pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.”  

As Dreamers continue to push for citizenship, there is hope that 2022 will be a year of progress in DACA, the safety of Dreamers, and the future of immigration reform in the US as a whole. 

SAMPAN, published by the nonprofit Asian American Civic Association, is the only bilingual Chinese-English newspaper in New England, acting as a bridge between Asian American community organizations and individuals in the Greater Boston area. It is published biweekly and distributed free-of-charge throughout metro Boston; it is also delivered to as far away as Hawaii.