New data out from Citizenship and Immigration Services — or USCIS — breaks down the demographics of today’s DACA recipients. The Obama-era program gave hundreds of thousands of undocumented people brought to the U.S. as kids protection from deportation and a work permit.
The program allots recipients a two-year work permit and temporary deportation protection, but no path to U.S. citizenship.
It was created 12 years ago, in June 2012. Phoenix resident Jose Patiño was 23 back then and part of DACA’s first cohort.
“We were called kids then, right? DACA kids. So now, through 12 years of the journey, we’re no longer kids, some of us are entering middle age” he said.
The new data shows there are more than 535,000 people who have DACA today, including more than 20,000 in Arizona. The majority are between 31 and 40 years old.
A series of legal battles have blocked new recipients from getting DACA. Meanwhile, oral arguments are scheduled next month for a case filed by Texas could end the program outright.
Patiño says he feels lucky to have the DACA status and be able to renew it, but that uncertainty has stopped him from moving forward with a lot of plans.
“The biggest one is starting a family, that’s always been a worry of mine, growing up undocumented, and then a DACA recipient, I just didn’t want to have, to bring a child into the world with the same uncertainty that I grew up with,” he said.
He says that’s why he and others are still fighting for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
