A study released in September found that the percentage of undocumented students at California's public universities has dropped significantly since 2016 as legal battles over the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program continue.
According to a study published in the University Law Journal, the number of undocumented immigrant students enrolled at the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) fell by half in 2022-2023 compared to 2016-2017. DACA, enacted by former President Barack Obama in 2012, was intended to temporarily postpone deportation for immigrants who came to the US as children, but was effectively halted by a series of lawsuits over the years. (Related story: Bill that would give illegal immigrants up to $150,000 to buy homes reaches Governor Gavin Newsom's desk)
The California Dream Act would provide DACA recipients with financial assistance to attend college in California. According to According to the website, the study shows that there will be just 579 new Dream Act scholarships awarded to UC students in the 2022-2023 school year, compared to 1,181 in the 2016-2017 school year. This 51% drop is mirrored in the CSU system, where Dream Act awardees have fallen from 2,219 in the 2016-2017 school year to 1,148 in the 2022-2023 school year, a 48% drop.
The downward trend is expected to become even steeper in 2023-2024, according to the study.
Indira Islas, an activist with Dreamer & TheDream.US, speaks during a press conference marking the 10th anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on June 15, 2022. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
In 2020, the Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump's attempt to end the program, but in 2021 a federal judge blocked new applications for the program, and in 2023 a Texas court ruling declared DACA illegal but has not yet fully repealed it. Legal questions surrounding the program could come before the Supreme Court in 2025.
Current DACA rules state that undocumented students must have been in the U.S. before 2007 to be eligible for the program. According to According to the study, DACA would be repealed on the website, causing nearly all of the 120,000 people graduating high school in 2024 to lose eligibility. President Joe Biden's 2024 executive order, which sought to avoid Republican challenges to DACA and provide amnesty to more than 500,000 undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years, faced similar legal challenges.
“After nearly 25 years of efforts to pass the federal DREAM Act that ultimately failed, state-level experimentation has taken on greater significance as a response to gridlock at the federal level,” the study states. “If DACA is struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, it will only intensify the need to once again experiment and seek solutions at the state and university levels until federal legislative reform in this area is finally achieved.”
California has the largest number of undocumented college students, with an estimated 4,000 in the University of California system and 10,000 to 12,000 in the California State University system in 2018, according to the study.
UC and CSU did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation's requests for comment.
As an independent, nonpartisan news service, all content produced by the Daily Caller News Foundation is available free of charge to any legitimate news publisher with a large readership. All republished articles must include our logo, reporter byline, and affiliation with the DCNF. If you have any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact us at licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
