The Dreams of a DACA Recipient

Daishi Miguel-Tanaka, Senior Manager of Federal Policy at the Immigration Hub

I am a proud recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the Senior Manager of Federal Advocacy at the Immigration Hub where I lead our advocacy efforts to build national consensus in support of immigration reform through partnerships and educating congressional offices on the Hill. Although I was born in Japan, I went to elementary, middle, and high school in Southern California. I received DACA during the 10th grade and it was my saving grace to work and provide for my undocumented family.

This weekend will mark the 12th anniversary of the DACA program, a 2012 Obama-era initiative that extended work authorization and relief from deportation for young people brought to the U.S. as children. The widely popular program continues to face uncertainty as the country awaits yet another court decision on its legality. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen previously declared the program illegal in 2021 and he ruled the Biden administration’s DACA regulation illegal in 2023. Though the decision left protections in place for current DACA recipients while an appeal is pending, we live in fear that the next court decision at the 5th Circuit will upend our lives.

Now more than ever, policymakers must come together on a permanent solution.

Having protections under the DACA program afforded me the peace of mind to travel out of state, and I graduated from Harvard University in 2019. As a contributing member of our labor force since, I have paid thousands of dollars in taxes each year, the same as many Americans. Due to congressional failure to provide a path to a work permit or green card for Dreamers, the futures of hundreds of thousands of doctors, teachers, and students who are actively contributing to American prosperity and economic growth are threatened. Above all, I fear that the removal of the protections that have allowed me to live the American Dream and contribute to our country will succeed at revoking the peace of mind to provide for myself, my family, and my community–a peace of mind that I belong in the country that I call home.

Since its inception, the DACA program has provided the opportunity for over 830,000 Dreamers like myself to study, work, and contribute to the social and economic fabric of America without fear of deportation. DACA protections have allowed Dreamers to build lives and start families in the U.S., without regard to where they were born, and their hard work has proven essential to the U.S. economy–contributing billions of dollars annually and even creating new demand for jobs for U.S. citizens. Although the program originally benefited many immigrant youth, most of them are now adults who have started businesses and have children in the U.S. In fact, more Dreamers are homeowners than ever before. 

This year marks twelve years without permanent protections in place for 830,000 Dreamers like me. Unfortunately, DACA’s eligibility requirements have not been updated since the policy was announced, so about 2 million additional Dreamers currently living in the U.S. are not protected by the program that has protected me. Our immigrant community deserves better, and American voters agree.

The majority of Americans are consistently in support of sensible, balanced immigration reform: eighty-two percent of voters support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for many years, paid taxes, and passed a background check. At this point, it is unlikely that congress will break through partisan barriers to advance a legislative solution. It is then incumbent on President Biden to use the tools at his disposal to advance relief that would extend a pathway to citizenship for all Dreamers and other long-settled undocumented populations, like spouses of U.S. citizens and parents of U.S. citizen children with acute needs.

At a time when the nation’s labor supply is dwindling, harmful misinformation continues to distort the overwhelmingly positive impact Dreamers like myself have had on our country and economy. Dreamers already give so much to this country; it is time for our leaders to recognize us as the Americans we truly are and open pathways to citizenship so we can keep contributing to the country we call home.