Flooding. The importance of controlling they are trying to gain leverage and trying to gain territory and course of power over the rest of the nation. You can hear more online at cspan. Org. Discussion on the Homeland Security departments Deferred Action Program for childhood arrivals. It allows undocumented immigrants to live freely in the u. S. For two years before facing deportation. Pew Charitable Trust this is about 1. 5 hours. Good afternoon, and welcome to the pew Charitable Trust. We are encouraging you to live. Weet the event please be sure to use the microphones on both sides of the room. It is myly begin pleasure to introducev a veteran executive runs our Performance Department to provide some welcome. I am pleased to welcome you to the Panel Discussion we will have today. Pew is a nonpartisan organization, established in 1948, by the children of the Sun Oil Company founder. We are guided by the values and the vision of those founders and their direction to tell on the truth and trust the people, and that shapes our commitment to research and analysis that can inform a look policy and policy change. And today pew operates programs, and our mission is to inform the public and inform Public Policy has led us to a broad range of issues, ranging from economic growth, the Economic Security of the american family, food, drug, and medical device safety and innovation. We have a long history of working with states on fiscal and Economic Policy issues, and recently have begun to look more deeply at the federal, state, Fiscal Economic relationship. To that end, our project began a year ago focuses on the intersection of federal and state Immigration Laws and policy. The anniversary of the daca program, we had an opportunity to look at its impact across the country. The discussion today is not only timely, but highlights the Important Role that state and local actors play and are often overlooked in programs. I would like to thank our panelists for joining us this afternoon. I thank all of you for joining us as well. With that, i will turn the program over to the projects director, adam hunter. Thank you. [applause] great. We have a stellar panel this afternoon, so we want to get to it. I want to make some brief introductory remarks here. As sue mentioned, our project , the immigration and the states project, focuses on the intersection of federal, state, and local Immigration Laws and policy. We provide nonpartisan insights and analyses to inform policymaking at all levels of government. Up until 10 weeks ago i was in federal service as the acting chief of staff at u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the department of Homeland Security. I worked during that time on the daca program. I am pleased to see colleagues from dhs and uscis here today. I wanted to acknowledge there has been a lot of immigration in the news as of late, particularly around two issues. One, the ongoing crisis with the children coming to the southwest border, many without their families. This is not our focus today. These individuals are not able to qualify for daca. The second pertains to, now having gone on summer recess, the congress has not sent the president an immigration bill with reforms he would like, and as he stated earlier this summer, that he intends to take executive action within existing laws to fix as much as we can. The administrations approach in creating daca, they deferred action for childhood arrivals process, is thought by many people to be a Model Program the president may be considering for possible changes or expansion. Pew does not take a position on any current or proposed immigration related legislation or policy proposals. The nexus for our project is to examine federal programs such as daca to highlight the role of states and localities have played and why policy makers at all levels should consider the these roles when contemplating other changes. Let me provide background on daca and who is eligible. Two years ago this week, on august 15, 2012, u. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting requests for daca. Daca was created for individuals who, at the federal governments discretion, were deemed low priority for removal from the United States and thereby met several criteria. They had to be under 31 when the program began. They had to have come to the United States before their 16th birthday. They needed to have been here continuously present in the United States since 2007. This is why none of the children on the border could qualify. They need to either be in school, have completed school, or served in the armed forces. Importantly, they need to not have any serious criminal history. As an act of discretion, Daca Recipients are not gaining legal status and did not have a pathway to citizenship, but for the nearly 600,000 who are in the program, what they get is a twoyear renewable reprieve from deportation and the ability to work lawfully in the United States. The idea of estimating who might actually be eligible for daca is a challenging one for many reasons. There are not the data available, but last week i will note that the Migration Policy Institute published a report where they estimated 1. 2 Million People were to be eligible for daca at the outset of the program and they recommend excuse me, they recognized that 55 of those have since made the requests with u. S. Cis. Turning to the panel, we will not be able to focus on the pros and cons of the policy choice or to recommend administrative approaches, but on what we can learn from the daca program as it exists about the unique roles states and localities have played in this traditionally federal policy arena. We will highlight where states and localities have played a role, looking at specific state examples. We will then assess the programs impact nationally and across key metro areas and states, and finally we will turn to how the public views daca in light of other proposals on the table and, generally, how the public views migration in how the public views immigration in america. You have panelist bios at your seats. I will briefly introduce each panelist as they come up for the discussion. I am pleased to start with my colleague here at pew, michele waslin, who manages our agenda at the immigration in the states project. Michele has come from the immigration policy center, where she is the author of many studies and reports on immigration policy and is a frequent commentator in english and spanishlanguage media. Michele, we look forward to your observations. [applause] thank you very much. Thanks to all of you for being with us here this afternoon. We generally think of immigration as a federal issue, and especially when it comes to Something LikeLegalization Programs or a deferredaction program because it is only the federal government that can protect someone from deportation or change ones immigration status. States and localities also have Important Roles when it comes to implementing these programs. I need to first point out that this is now an issue that all states need to be thinking about, because today there are many more unauthorized immigrants living in nontraditional immigrantreceiving states. Here on this map in dark blue you see california and illinois, new york, texas, new jersey these are your traditional immigrantreceiving states. They had the largest number of unauthorized immigrants in 1990 and in 2010. The states here in green, including nevada, North Carolina, arizona these are the states that saw the largest growth in their unauthorized population between 1990 and 2010. Texas and new jersey fall into both categories. You can see there are more unauthorized immigrants living in states that do not have a lack of experience with immigration policy. Similarly with daca, we are seeing that the largest numbers of people applying are in these traditional immigrant receiving states, but other states, like georgia, North Carolina, virginia, are also seeing large numbers of people applying for daca. You will hear more about these numbers in a bit. In april, pew released a paper called immigration and legalization roles and responsibilities of states and localities. In this paper, we looked at two programs the Immigration Reform and control act that was passed in 1986, about two point 7 Million People were legalized under that program. And we looked at daca. Looking at these two programs, we identified four potential roles for states if there was to be a new Legalization Program or some kind of expanded Deferred Action Program. These roles are outreach in Public Education, documentation, education, and protecting immigrants from fraud. Lets look at these on by one. First, outreach and education. States and localities can and do play an Important Role in educating communities about how to apply and assisting with the application practices. We found that in new york when irca was being implemented local , officials publicized the Legalization Programs. The mayors offices created task forces to identify barriers to legalization. And there was a legalization information hotline that was funded jointly by the city, the state, and the federal government. Now with daca, we are seeing the same thing, that some states and localities are doing town halls, conducting community meetings, organizing application workshops, creating informational materials in multiple languages, and trying to educate the community about daca and the application process and help them with the application process. I think amalia is going to talk about these efforts in illinois in a bit. The second role is documentation. This is key. This means states and localities are often the source of the documents that applicants need to prove that they have met the eligibility requirements. This includes proof of a high school degree, proof they have been living in the United States for a certain number of years. During ircas documentation, schools, state and locally, operated utilities and other Government Agencies, provided documents like school records, tax records, and utility bills that helped applicants prove they have been living in the United States for the required amount of time. For daca, we are seeing that Public Schools are very important because they are involved in providing transcripts to students so they can prove they have met the education requirements by completing high school or by getting their ged. Third is education. Public schools and Community Colleges may already be providing education that applicants need to meet the programs educational requirements. Or if the Program Requires additional education, like irca did, states and localities may be providing englishlanguage classes or other types of education as well. Under irca, applicants had to meet english language and u. S. History and civics requirements, and states and localities were a big part of providing the classes that the applicant needed to fulfill those requirements. Under daca, applicants have to have a High School Diploma or a ged or must be currently in school. Jobrelated english courses or other Adult Education courses can also be applicable, and these are things that are often coordinated by states and localities. Some are going above and beyond. In new york, the city council created additional Adult Education slots and prioritized unauthorized immigrants that were applying for daca so they could get the education courses they needed to fulfill the educational requirements. Finally protections from fraud. ,protection from fraudulent or predatory Immigration Legal Service providers. This means that states and localities can play a role in protecting immigrants from people who try to target them and charge exorbitant fees for services that they may or may not be able to provide. We know these types of predatory practices are common when there is a new Legalization Program or even when there is rumor of such program might be passed. Currently at least 29 states , have laws that are specifically regulating the unauthorized practice of Immigration Law. Last year in 2013, california passed a new law that makes it a violation for attorneys to charge immigrants in advance for any Services Related to Legalization Programs before that Legalization Program has actually been passed by congress. Last week, new york enacted a law that creates new crimes and penalties for immigration assistance fraud. There are a couple of other areas were states and localities could play a role in implementation, including coordinating all the efforts taking place amongst Government Agencies and with nonprofit organizations that we know are doing a large amount of work with implementation as well. States and localities are monitoring the implementation and assessing ongoing needs, and they may be also assessing the future needs of a newly legalized population. We also recognize that all states and localities have not been actively promoting or implementing daca and devoting their resources to this. There is a great variation among states regarding the amount of funding or other resources that they are allocating to create outreach materials to reach out to their communities. And beyond the initial implementation, states and localities make other decisions regarding the broader implementation of the program. So what types of benefits and services will Daca Recipients be eligible for down the line . For example, while most states are issuing drivers licenses to Daca Recipients, at least two states, arizona and nebraska, announced they have chosen not to issue drivers licenses to Daca Recipients. It is important to recognize that the roles and responsibilities of states and localities are somewhat determined by the federal government, but even if the federal government does not include explicit roles and responsibilities for states and localities, the details of the program really do influence the level of involvement. And the federal government really needs to be aware of this and take states and localities into account as they move forward. These things include the eligibility requirements. Applicants are going to have to prove they have lived in United States for a period of time or receive a certain level of education, paid taxes, and they need documents to prove these requirements, and states and localities may be the source of the application that applicants will need. The timing is important. The length of time that applicants have to get their materials together and turn in their application is likely the same amount of time that states and localities will have to prepare for their roles and get their materials in order. Daca was implemented very quickly, just 60 days between the announcement and the first application. Under irca, applicants had one year to meet the english language and u. S. History and civics requirement. There is a real possibility that states and localities could be completely overwhelmed if there is a large number of people looking for these documents or services in a short time. The federal government needs to give states and localities and other Service Providers adequate time to prepare. And finally, funding. We recognize that funding is an issue. There is a precedent for congress to include funding for states and localities for implementation. In 1986, irca included grants that partially reimbursed states and localities for english language classes and other services that they provide. The federal government needs to take all these things into account if and when they are designing new programs. I want to quickly point out that immigration in the states is currently working on another project. We are looking at state implementation of new drivers license laws. We are looking at states that issue drivers licenses to people who cannot prove that they are lawfully present in the United States. As part of this drivers license process, what were finding out is states are already verifying identity documents, including foreignissued documents. Dmvs and other agencies are meeting with foreign consulates to discuss the security features of foreign issued documents. States are verifying state residency. Some states are requiring drivers license applicants prove they have paid taxes for a period of time in the state. These states have set up a system to verify tax payments. The state and dmvs are reaching out to the communities in multiple languages, working with communitybased organiz