Determinants of DACA Applications
Determinants of DACA Applications: A Multi-level, Bi-national Study of Incentives, Deterrents, and Consequences of Decisions to Seek Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
This project collected and analyzed five datasets: (1) a large-scale, on-line survey of 1,472 undocumented millennials (Wong and Valdivia, 2014); (2) a national-level dataset containing information on the first 146,313 applications for DACA status received by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request; (3) standardized survey interviews with a random sample of 200 Mexico-born persons living in San Diego County; (4) standardized survey interviews with 465 residents of a high-emigration community in the Mexican state of Oaxaca that sends most of its migrants to San Diego County; (5) qualitative (semi-structured) interviews conducted with 55 undocumented youth throughout San Diego County and representatives of 2 non-governmental organizations operating in the County that have assisted DACA applicants. Among the 1,472 persons in the large-scale survey, 92.9 percent (or 1,367) had applied for DACA status. Among those who had applied, 95.3 percent (or 1,302) were approved for DACA status at the time of the survey. Among the 55 persons youths interviewed in the qualitative component of our project, 100 percent had applied for DACA and 98.2 percent were approved at the time of the interviews.