Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that, six months from now, the Trump administration will the end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA — a program that has protected nearly 800,000 undocumented young adults from deportation.
DACA, the immigration program Trump wants to end, explained in one simple cartoon
Here’s how 800,000 people got protected status — and why they’re now in danger.
DACA was started by President Barack Obama in 2012. Its primary goal is to allow undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children to be protected from deportation, while also allowing them to work legally and obtain a driver’s license. My colleague, Dara Lind, has an excellent explainer here, which you should read.
Thus far, about 800,000 people have been approved for protected under DACA, though a total of about 1.3 million people are eligible and more will become eligible as they turn 16 years old or fulfill education requirements.
But to get a quick grasp of what DACA is, we made a cartoon diagram that visualizes who these people (known as “DREAMers”) are, and how they got to be in this position.
For a more in-depth visual explainer, with a lot more context, read this cartoonsplainer.
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