Public Attitudes and DACA

Indianapolis, IN

In 2012, former President Barak Obama was able to place an executive order that initiated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gave, under some regulations, "Dreamers" recognition as individuals in this country (Meissner, 2013; US Citizenship and Immigration Services , 2017). In the month of October, DACA was canceled. With the end of the program, I was interested in learning how it was that others perceived the program, if they supported it or if it was something they opposed on state bases. If there is a relationship between the number of DACA recipients in a state and the public opinion of this policy, then there could be some understanding as to what might politicians might decide to do about it. Not much research done over DACA in general so much of the previous literature is related to immigrant perceptions, as DACA recipients are under this larger umbrella. Understanding DACA, what it is and the process of applying for it (Nguyen, & Kebede, 2017; US Citizenship and Immigration Services , 2017; Svajlenka & Singer, 2016; Gonzales, Terriquez, Ruszczyk, 2014; Meissner, Kerwin, Chishti, and Bergeron, 2013;), state immigration policies, skill and education levels of immigrants, and contact between DACA recipients and others can give intel over the general view of DACA. In the end, was 65% of respondents who lived in a state who had more than the median DACA recipients supported DACA with no statistical significance found.