Realizing the DACA and DREAM Promise: Actions to Support Educational Attainment of Potentially Eligible Immigrant Youth

With postsecondary degrees proving to be beyond the reach of many low-income immigrant youth, and a vastly under-resourced adult education system the weakest link in the U.S. educational pipeline, a lack of educational attainment and opportunities stands to block hundreds of thousands of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) youth from obtaining immigration protections for which they would otherwise qualify. This Migration Policy Institute (MPI) webinar discusses the findings of the report Diploma, Please: Promoting Educational Attainment for DACA- and Potential DREAM Act-Eligible Youth, from MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. The discussion covers the education challenges facing DACA youth, targeted programs designed to address them, and recommendations for overcoming the education-success obstacles that key subgroups of DACA-DREAM youth face. The report highlights some of the promising programs, emerging models, and policy contexts in states such as California, Texas, New York, Illinois, Georgia, and Washington State.