DACA Resources

NEA and an ally organization created a resource that helps answer questions about DACA eligibility and how to apply. 

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) is a memorandum passed on June 15, 2012. It was implemented by the Secretary of the Department Homeland Security.  It directs U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to practice prosecutorial discretion towards some individuals who immigrated illegally to the United States as children.

 

A grant of deferred removal action does not confer lawful immigration status, alter an individual’s existing immigration status, or provide a path to citizenship.

A Washington Post report looks at the past year and where the applicants come from.  The infographic paints a picture that shows where DACA applicants were born, and where they live now

DACA applicants were born in 192 countries. While individuals from Mexico make up the majority of applicants in most states, states along the East Coast have a more diverse composition. These maps show the percentage breakdown of applicants in each state, by the region where the individual was born. 

According to the Brookings Institute, 537,000 young people have been accepted into the DACA program since last August.

Many say that the program is working for some and not working for others.  For example in this ABC news report from Houston yesterday, some young people are having trouble getting simple documentation from their country of birth.  In this case an honor student can not get a copy of his birth certificate from the Mexican government thus throwing his opportunity to get deferred action and continue his higher ed studies into limbo.

Immigration and Entrepreneurship

Teaching students about immigration by giving them a better understanding of the contributions of entrepeneurs and innovators throughout U.S. history gives students a better foundation of the economics of immigration and debunks many myths about immigrants not contributing to our economy.   Immigrants invent, they innovate, they open businesses and they create jobs.  In a blog post by the American Immigration Council they lay out the most recent findings and measure the impact of immigrant owned enterprises.

According to Entrepeneur Magazine a new survey offers more evidence of immigrants' contributions to the U.S. entrepreneur ecosystem and overall economic health. A report from bipartisan immigration reform group the Partnership for a New American Economy found that immigrants are two times as likely to start a business than their native-born peers. Also, immigrants started 28 percent of new businesses in 2011, according to the August 2012 report, far exceeding the 12.9 percent of the population they represent. They are job creators, too. One in 10 employees of U.S. privately-owned companies work at an immigrant-owned business and those businesses contribute more than $775 billion to the U.S. economy, the report says.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226273#ixzz2h8i5yTuh

Immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators have a common thread they overcame many barriers and succeeded beyond most expectations.

Organizing for Action recently published an immigrant story on Convo's founder, Faizan Buzdar (Convo is a Facebook for enterprises). Faizan shares his difficulty of waiting to get a visa - and the accompanying uncertainty and confusion. If the immigration system was more straightforward, he could have spent all this time and energy building his startup, which could have grown to support additional American jobs.  See the video below and start a discussion in your classroom.

 

 

Additional resources: 

Tina Seelig an amazing professor at Stanford University discusses concepts of immigrant entrepreneurs in her series of talks-The Art of Teaching Entrepreneurship and Innovation

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2266

 

The Immigration Policy Center- Entrepreneur Innovation Newsletter

http://immigrationpolicy.org/entrepreneurship-and-innovation-newsletter-september-12-2013

 

Immigrant Inc.

Author Richard Herman provocativly  looks at the remarkable contributions of high-skill immigrant entrepreneurs in America.  Both a revelation and a call-to-action, Immigrant, Inc. explores the uncommon skill and drive of America's new immigrants and their knack for innovation and entrepreneurship. From the techies who created icons of the new economy-Intel, Google, eBay and Sun Microsystems-to the young engineers tinkering with solar power and next-generation car batteries, immigrants have proven themselves to be America's competitive advantage...