The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy gives undocumented, highly vetted youth who grew up in the United States the ability to work legally with temporary relief from potential deportation and contribute to their communities. It is a policy President-elect Trump has vowed to end within his first few days in office. However, the loss of 750,000 DACA recipients would cost the United States greatly in terms of the economy.
According to a report by the Center for American Progress, if DACA were to be discontinued and no other policy put in place, the United States economy would lose $433.4 billion from the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in just 10 years.
The Center of American Progress also calculated the amount of GDP each state would lose annually if those currently working under DACA could no longer do so. New York would lose over $2.3 billion dollars in a year in GDP, making it the third-highest losing state next to California ($11.2 billion) and Texas ($6.1 billion). These figures were calculated by using the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) estimates on how many DACA recipients reside in each state, with the average that 87% currently work in the state where they reside, and multiplied by average salaries of unauthorized workers. This means that, in fact, these losses could be even higher, depending on how true these estimates are to each state’s situation.
See how much the rest of the country would lose by using the chart provide below:
