On June 15, President Obama, frustrated by congressional inaction on immigration reform, announced that his administration would exercise executive power to make Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) available to as many as 1.3 million young people. The new policy met with fierce opposition: An attendee at that Rose Garden press conference interrupted the president to express his outrage, and shortly thereafter, in Arizona v. United States, Justice Scalia harshly criticized the president’s action. Gov. Romney implied while campaigning that he might terminate the policy. Eligible DACA candidates were reluctant to apply for fear the DACA was soon to be retracted.
Then, President Obama won the election with 71 percent of the Hispanic vote, and suddenly, many of those who initially objected to the president’s immigration policies are jumping on the immigration reform bandwagon. Even the casual observer can recognize a sea change in the attitude toward immigration reform when conservative talk show host Sean Hannity declares that “[immigration reform] is a position that I’ve evolved on.” This “evolution” in the political environment on immigration is likely to ensure stability for the DACA program and result in an increase in DACA applications. U.S. employers will have to address how DACA affects them.
