Transitory Legality: The Health Implication of Ending DACA

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of the rescission announcement of the DACA program on the health outcomes of Latino DACA recipients in California. Research shows that undocumented immigrants face poorer health outcomes than their documented counterparts and U.S. citizens, and that being offered legal status (e.g. DACA) considerably improves their health outcomes. Even though studies have examined the impact of shifting legal status on incorporation, to our knowledge no studies have considered the effects of announcing the rescission of the DACA program on its recipients. However, this is important because it may have implications on their health outcomes. This study addresses this gap by using in-depth interviews with 43 Latino DACA recipients living in the California San Francisco Bay Area in 2017 and 2018. Our findings suggest that rescission announcement of DACA has led to worsening health outcomes for DACA recipients. Specifically, we find that it created what we call a state of transitory legality among the 1.5 generation, which causes DACA recipients to experience health outcomes that are worse than those before DACA. Our results are important in the field of sociology, public policy and heath care because they show the negative effects of reversing inclusionary immigration policies on the health outcomes of undocumented Latino immigrants.

Immigration Policy and Immigrants' Sleep: Evidence from Daca

“…Unsurprisingly, we show that the beneficial effects of DACA on sleep behavior tend to dissipate from 2016. This finding is consistent with the idea that the uncertainty around this temporary program may have undermined its positive impact on health and well-being, and, in turn, on sleep (Mallet and Garcia Bedolla, 2019).…”

Legal Vulnerability and Campus Environment: Assessing Factors that Affect the Academic Engagement of Undocumented College Students

“…Specifically, the DACA program was rescinded by former President Donald Trump in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court was weighing the legality of this action and determining the future of the program in the months we fielded the survey. Prior research has established that the rescission and subsequent political threats limited the protective effects of DACA and created new strains (Benuto et al, 2018;Mallet & Garcia Bedolla, 2019;Morales Hernandez & Enriquez, this issue). This suggests that liminal legal statuses like DACA are insufficient to promote recipient's integration and a path to citizenship will be critical to promote undocumented student's academic success and overall well-being.…”

Health Consequences of Laws and Public Policies That Target, or Protect, Marginalized Populations

“…For instance, two policies of the Trump administration that are especially likely to be linked to negative health outcomes are the 2017 repeal of DACA and the ongoing separation of families at the border between the US and Mexico (Bouza et al, ; Hainmueller et al, ; MacKenzie et al, ). Previous research has assessed the health impacts of the DACA, and its repeal, (Hainmueller et al, ; Mallet & Bedolla, ; Patler et al, ) and family separation (Bouza et al, ; MacKenzie et al, ) and has demonstrated the negative health effects of both policies in the Latino, immigrant, and Latino immigrant populations, and especially for children.…”