When President Obama announced the creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program four years ago this past week, he noted that the program was designed to “mend our nation’s immigration policy, to make it more fair, more efficient, and more just.” After four years, that’s exactly what DACA has done. Since 2012, more than 1.3 million undocumented young people have received relief through DACA. Hispanic Federation is proud to have been an early supporter of DACA and to have provided important services to tens of thousands of Latino immigrants, including:
- DACA Application Assistance: Through the Hispanic Immigrant Integration Project (HIIP), launched in 2013 in partnership with the League of United Latin American Citizens, our network has screened and completed thousands of DACA applications. We currently have HIIP agencies in New York, NY; Newark, New Jersey; Danbury, CT; Philadelphia & Erie, PA; Sacramento, CA; Houston, TX; South Bend, IN; and Phoenix, AZ.
- DACA Scholarships: Hispanic Federation recognized the need for financial assistance to cover the $465 DACA application fee and developed the HF DACA Scholarship Program to provide grants to financially needy DACA applicants to cover the costs of the DACA application fee. To date, HF has provided more than 250 scholarships to DACA-eligible youth.
- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Day of Action: Since 2014, HF has held an annual "DACA Day of Action" to inform the community about DACA and increase application rates. Each year, HF has partnered with Telemundo to create a public education campaigned to inform the tri-state area about the benefits of DACA and encourage individuals to participate in HF’s DACA Day of Action clinics in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. During these clinics, clients are screened for DACA and assisted with their DACA application. HF’s DACA Day of Action media outreach consisted of news segments, newspaper articles and radio shows. Through these annual DACA public education campaigns, HF has provided assistance to more than 3,000 immigrant families.
“DACA has provided a lifeline of relief for undocumented children throughout the United States,” said HF President José Calderón. “We are expecting a decision by the Supreme Court any day now on the President’s 2014 executive actions on deportation relief — which includes temporary legal protections for millions of additional undocumented children and their parents. We’re hopeful that we’ll get a favorable ruling from the court and stand ready to serve those eligible for expanded-DACA and DAPA through the array of programs that we have.”
