February 1, 2021

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

The “DACA” executive order signed by President Obama in 2014 has always been controversial, as it was a response to the inability of Congress to pass immigration reform. In 2017 President Trump rescinded DACA which was subsequently challenged in court and in June 2020 the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration. As one of his first actions after his inauguration, President Biden reinstated DACA.

This partisan back-and-forth begs the question of what the American people think about DACA and whether they are as split along party lines as the executive actions suggest. To find that out, ActiVote conducted a survey to determine what our users think about DACA.

We provided five options to choose from, which can be summarized as follows:

All 1.7M should be given a pathway to citizenship
DACA should be kept in place until Congress acts
The courts should decide
DACA should be rescinded
All 1.7M should leave the US

The headline result

All 1.7M given pathway to citizenship

54%

DACA kept in place until Congress acts

23%

Let courts decide

DACA should be rescinded

10%

All 1.7M should leave the US

See the details below →

Just over half of Americans think that Dreamers should be given a pathway to citizenship. Another quarter believes that DACA should be kept in place, allowing them to stay, until Congress passes immigration reform. In other words: 3 in 4 Americans believe that Dreamers should stay in the US no matter what. Only 17% believes that DACA should be rescinded and/or Dreamers should leave the US.

The crosstabs

<50k

58%

16%

11%

50k-100k

55%

22%

>100k

48%

29%

11%

All 1.7M given pathway to citizenshipDACA kept in place until Congress actsLet courts decideDACA should be rescindedAll 1.7M should leave the US

See the details below →

There are some small differences in opinion based on income. Interestingly, those earning lower incomes, are both more likely (58% vs. 54% overall) to support a full pathway to citizenship and to oppose DACA (22% vs 17% overall).

The crosstabs

Dem

68%

21%

Rep

25%

26%

15%

17%

Ind

63%

19%

All 1.7M given pathway to citizenshipDACA kept in place until Congress actsLet courts decideDACA should be rescindedAll 1.7M should leave the US

See the details below →

There is a clear partisan divide in that almost 90% of Democrats and over 80% of independents support DACA and/or a pathway to citizenship, which is significantly higher than the 51% of Republicans who do the same. At the same time, even among Republicans only 1 in 3 believe that DACA should be rescinded and/or Dreamers should leave the US.

With that, ultimately, the status of the last 6 years of Dreamers being allowed to stay in the US seems to be the will of the people. Perhaps it is time for the 117th Congress to enact that into law.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

The Details

The answers as asked

The full crosstab table

	2490 RV	All 1.7M given pathway to citizenship	DACA kept in place until Congress acts	Let courts decide	DACA should be rescinded	All 1.7M should leave the US
National	±2.0% MoE	54%	23%	7%	10%	7%
Gender	Men	53%	19%	7%	13%	7%
Gender	Women	54%	27%	7%	7%	6%
Age	18-29	53%	24%	10%	7%	6%
	30-49	58%	20%	8%	9%	5%
	50-64	54%	24%	3%	10%	8%
	65+	46%	22%	7%	16%	9%
Ethnicity	White	48%	24%	7%	13%	8%
	Black	68%	14%	4%	13%	1%
	Latino	52%	23%	10%	8%	7%
Education	High school	56%	16%	6%	12%	10%
	Some college	57%	26%	5%	8%	5%
	Bachelor's	48%	26%	11%	11%	5%
Income	<50k	58%	16%	4%	11%	11%
	50k-100k	55%	22%	8%	8%	6%
	>100k	48%	29%	8%	11%	4%
Affiliation	Dem	68%	21%	2%	8%	1%
	Rep	25%	26%	15%	17%	17%
	Ind	63%	19%	5%	8%	5%
Region	Dark Red	46%	26%	7%	13%	8%
	Light Red	57%	19%	7%	12%	5%
	Swing	61%	21%	2%	10%	6%
	Light Blue	50%	20%	12%	9%	8%
	Dark Blue	51%	26%	7%	7%	7%