Taking DACA from immigrant moms hurts their US-born kids

A new study sheds light on the impact of rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on immigrant mothers and their children’s health.

The Trump administration’s recent decision to end the DACA program, which granted protection from deportation to unauthorized immigrants who entered the United States as minors, affects roughly 800,000 immigrants.

Imagine “having the father leave in the morning, and always thinking, ‘will this be the last time I see him?'”

Terminating DACA may also have perilous consequences for the children of those DREAMers, however, according to a new study in Science. Researchers found that the protections offered by DACA can drastically enhance health outcomes for those children.

Researchers looked at a large sample of immigrant mothers born just before and after the cutoff date for DACA eligibility, and then followed their children’s health over time. After DACA was introduced in 2012, the group eligible for the program saw an immediate improvement in their children’s mental health: diagnoses of adjustment and anxiety disorders fell by more than 50 percent.

Here, two of the study’s authors—Jens Hainmueller, a professor of political science at Stanford University, and Fernando Mendoza, a professor of pediatrics—discuss the impact of ending DACA on the children of immigrant mothers protected by the program.

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