DACA’s Potential Demise Portends Labor Force Drop Across Economy

Nearly 600,000 would lose work authorization over time. Employers would face more than $6 billion in turnover costs. Employer Immigration Issues (Bloomberg Law subscription).Ten years after the start of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients face the prospect of losing the work authorization the program provides.

Both workers and employers are bracing for the outcome of the latest legal battle over the program, which allows undocumented young people brought to the US as children to apply for removal protections and work permits. A ruling that shuts down the program, which appears increasingly likely, would disrupt the lives of nearly 600,000 current DACA recipients and have ripple effects in the the labor force.

The situation has drawn the attention of corporations like Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., and IBM Corp., which have weighed in on the need for Congress to enact permanent protections for Dreamers. Microsoft and LinkedIn employ 88 workers with DACA status, a spokeswoman for Microsoft said.

In total, employers could face an estimated $6.3 billion in turnover costs related to the end of the DACA program.

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