As you may already know, on June 15, 2012, the government announced
a new program for young immigrants in the United States called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). However, the financial impact this program has had on the federal government is just becoming clear as we gain new information regarding the number of DACA applications submitted.
If an individual meets the DACA requirements, he or she may submit three forms to the U.S. government and pay $465 in filing fees. Essentially, the young immigrant is turning himself into immigration officials in order to obtain protection from deportation for two years and permission to work in the
U.S.
The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) just released new data on the DACA program a few days ago. In total, the government has received 367,903 DACA applications. Assuming that each applicant also applied for work authorization, more than $171 million dollars in filing fees were paid directly to the U.S. government as a result of DACA. In addition, more than 12,000 of the applications were rejected. In general, when an application is rejected, the applicant must pay the filing fee again in order to re-apply.
In Colorado, more than 7,000 young people have filed DACA applications in the past four months. As time passes, we are obtaining more information about the program, including the financial incentives the United States government has to continue it.