In the region dating back from left thesethat have countries weak. With the militarization piece, has not been the best way to move forward. Especially if we are talking about the issues of development and security. We also see sort of the united involvement and approach toward latin america specifically in terms of providing military support, providing more weapons. United states provided a lot of weapons, and they have scattered out into the hands of the gangs or people who should not have them. Another big sort of struc wealthauses inequality. Wealth has been concentrated among the rich and is squeezing the poor into higher levels of poverty. Just very few opportunities for you can follow all of this online at www. Cspan. Org. We will take you to a discussion on immigration, and particularly on the executive order issued by president obama as 12, known as finally, as you have also seen, we are recording and lives streaming live streaming, so please be sure to use the microphones at both sides of the room. To formally begin, it is my pleasure to introduce a veteran executive here at who runs our government performance Apartment Department to provide us with a welcome. [applause] and welcomernoon, to the Pew Charitable trust. I am pleased to welcome you to that Panel Discussion we will have today. 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. Pew operates programs, and our mission is to inform the policyand inform public has led us to a broad range of issues, ranging from economic growth, the Economic Security of the american family, food, drug, and medical vice 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. Our project began a year ago focuses on the intersection of federal and state immigration laws and policy. At the anniversary of the daca hadn, what we had a we 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 think 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 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 Service within the department of Homeland Security. I worked during that time on the daca program. Hasnted to knowledge there been a lot of immigration in the news as of late, particularly around two the 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 do now having gone on summer recess that congress has not sent a president and 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 is thoughtca process 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 concentrating contemplating other changes. Let me provide background on daca and who is eligible. Two years ago this week on august 15, 2000 12, 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. He 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 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 Migration Policy Institute published a report where the estimated 1. 2 Million People were to be eligible for daca at the outset of the program and they recommend 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 recognize administrative approaches, but on what we can learn from the daca program 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 america. At your panelist bios seats. I will briefly introduce each panelist as they come up for the discussion. I am pleased to start with michelle who manages our agenda at the immigration in the states project. Michelle has come from the 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. Michelle, 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 Deferred Action Program because it is only the federal government that cant protect someone from deportation S Immigration status. States also have Important Roles when it comes to implementing these programs. Thatd to first point out this is now an issue that all states need to be thinking about , because today there are many more on authorized immigrants living in nontraditional immigrantreceiving states. Here on this map in dark blue you see california and illinois, new york, ford, texas, new jersey these are your traditional immigrantreceiving states. Green,tes here in including nevada, north carolina, arizona, these are the states that saw the largest growth in their on authorized population between 1990 and 2010. Texas and new jersey fall into both categories. You can see there are more unauthorized immigrants living in the states. We are seeing that the largest numbers of people applying are in the states, but other states like georgia, north carolina, virginia, are also seeing large present people applying for daca. We will hear more about these numbers in a bit. Paperil, pew released a which looked at two programs. The Immigration Reform and control act that was passed in 1986. And we looked at daca. Looking at these two programs, we identified for potential roles four states if there was to be a new Legalization Program or some kind of Deferred Action Program. These roles are outreach in Public Education, recommendation, education, and protecting immigrants from fraud. Lets look at these on by one. Outreach and education. States and localities cant and do play an Important Role in educating communiques about educating communities about how to apply and assisting with the application practices. We found when the program was being limited, local officials publicized the Legalization Programs. Office created task forces, 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 program. I think amalia is going to talk about this 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 to agree, proof they have been living in the United States for a certain number of years. During the 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 giving their ged. Third is education. Schools and Community Colleges may all be providing education that applicants need to meet the programs educational requirements. Or if the Program Requires additional education, like did, states and localities may be providing englishlanguage passes or other education as well. Applicants had to meet english language and u. S. History and civics requirements come and states and localities were a big heart of providing this class is 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 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 can get the education courses they needed to fulfill the requirements. Protections from fraud. Retention 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 forcharge exorbitant Fees Services that they may or may not be able to provide. Auditoryhese types of practices are common when there is a new Utilization Program or even when there is rumor of such program might be passed. At least 29 states have laws that are specifically regulating the unauthorized practice of immigration law. 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 lace amongst walkable and witht agencies nonprofit organizations that we know are doing a work with implementation as well. States and localities are monitoring the implementation and assessing ongoing needs, and they may be also assessing the future deeds 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 Rate Variation among states runt of funding or other resources that they are allocating to create outreach materials, reach out to their communities. And beyond the initial of limitation, 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 for example, s are issuing drivers licenses to Daca Recipients, at least two states announce 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 theram really do influence 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. Nts are going to have to prove that i have lived in United States for a time or receive a certain level of a cage accused 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 be. 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. Year to meetd one 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 meet other providers adequate time to prepare. In finally, funding. We recognize that funding is an issue. There is a president for congress to include funding for states and localities for implementation. 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 they aref and when designing new programs. I want to quickly point out that the immigration in the states is currently working on another program, looking at implementation of drivers licenses programs. We are looking at states that allow us to issue drivers licenses to people who cannot prove that they are lawfully present in the United States. As part of this process, what were are finding out is states are already verifying identity documents, including foreignissued documents. S and other agencies are meeting with consulates to discuss the security fa eatures. Some states are requiring drivers license applicants prove they pay taxes for a time in the state. These states have set up a system to verify tax payments. Are reaching dmvs out to the communities in multiple languages, working with communitybased organizations, providing materials in multiple languages, and they are handling large numbers of applicants and long lines at dmvs. What were seeing is we think a lot can be learned from the state experiences with issuing drivers licenses to unauthorized immigrants that may be applicable to future immigration programs. Finally, in conclusion to all states and localities need to be thinking it out this and preparing for how they might respond if there is a new Legalization Program or some program. Xpanded daca some states and localities are already playing a role in implementing daca. Some states are already issuing drivers licenses to unauthorized immigrants, and they are providing them with information on how to apply, and providing documentation that applicants need. Theyre preparing for their roles and responsible lives in case of a future legalization or Deferred Action Program. We know policymakers have choices, and when the federal government makes choices, those decisions affect states and localities. We hope that todays presentations are our first step in helping policymakers from all levels of government make informed decisions. Tha