New study says Trump-era DACA reforms cut enrollment by CA illegals in half
A recent study says that new enrollment at California’s public colleges and universities by illegal immigrants dropped by roughly 50 percent between the 2016-2017 and 2022-2023 academic years.
The study claims that the declining potency of the DACA program is the primary causal factor behind this shift because of the Trump administration's work starting in 2017.
A recent study says that new enrollment at California’s public colleges and universities by illegal immigrants dropped by roughly 50 percent between the 2016-2017 and 2022-2023 academic years.
Released last month, the study cites the alleged declining potency of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program as the primary causal factor behind this shift, noting that the Trump administration took significant action to restrict DACA provisions in 2017.
The authors, William Kidder of the UCLA Civil Rights Project and Kevin Johnson of the UC Davis School of Law, note that enrollment for similarly-situated citizens and legal U.S. residents stayed roughly constant during the period in question, adding further credibility to their argument about DACA’s influence.
“Our third finding is that there were not notable declines over the same period in our ‘control’ groups—other low- and lower-middle income students at UC and CSU with similar academic profiles—which supports our inference about the causal role of DACA’s decline on decreasing undocumented student enrollments,” the study states.
The authors also acknowledge the inherent difficulty of collecting credible data to use for their analysis, noting that records of illegal immigrants’ enrollment tend to be poorly documented.
“Officials at U.S. public universities and higher education boards making administrative choices about collecting data on undocumented students must navigate between competing hazards,” the authors state. “Most public university systems have chosen (or defaulted to) procedures and policies that absorb some known degree of harm in order to avoid the risk of catastrophic harm.”
“More specifically, most university systems with sizeable numbers of undocumented students knowingly forego the potential educational benefits of being able to integrate undocumented status with their financial aid and registration record systems because there are offsetting ethical concerns,” Kidder and Johnson write.
[ANALYSIS: Illegal immigration puts strain on American college students’ education]
Johnson told Inside Higher Ed that the decline in enrollment may also be partly explained by barriers that illegal immigrants face in the workplace that limit their ability to pay tuition.
“It’s hard enough for students who are citizens to fund their education through loans, work and otherwise,” Johnson said. “Many of us have memories of working long hours as students to fund our education, but if you can’t work lawfully, it’s very difficult to proceed.”
The study is currently set to be featured in the Journal of College & University Law in 2025.
Campus Reform has reached out to California State University and the University of California for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
