Last Updated: July 13, 2021
SBCC supports immigration reform that would provide a broad path to legal residence and citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, including numerous borderland community members.
Countless undocumented borderlanders and their families would reap the benefits of immigration reform. Legalization would protect 580,310 active DACA recipients and an estimated 605,000 individuals who are eligible for DACA in southern border states (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas). In addition, it would benefit some 101,450 TPS recipients in southern border states. There are roughly 1.2 million undocumented farmworkers and approximately half work in a southern border state, with the majority supporting California’s farms. Tens of thousands of other undocumented borderlanders have spent over ten years in the U.S. and become well established members of our communities. Many are married or the parent of a U.S. citizen.
There is considerable overlap between these different categories of undocumented immigrants, which makes it impossible to estimate exactly how many borderlanders would benefit from immigration reform.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Recipients
A path to citizenship would offer permanent protection to up to 1.1 million individuals eligible for DACA, over 605,000 of whom live in a southern border state, according to Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates.
Of the estimated 580,310 active DACA recipients, some 287,980 live in California, Arizona, Texas or New Mexico, according to the latest data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Immigrant youth are instrumental to our communities — they’re our neighbors, teachers, nurses and doctors. Learn more about Border Dreamers here.
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Of these DACA recipients, 137,980 live in southern border communities. Approximately 70,500 Dreamers live in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metropolitan area alone, followed by almost 22,000 in Riverside-San Bernardino; over 19,000 in the Phoenix area and over 9,300 in the San Diego region.
Immigration reform could also broaden the criteria for DACA, and MPI estimates that between 1.9 million and 2.9 million undocumented immigrants who arrived to the United States as children could be eligible.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Recipients
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the authority to designate a country for TPS that is undergoing an armed conflict, natural disaster or other extraordinary and temporary conditions where individuals cannot safely return to their home country.
Of the nearly 355,000 people with TPS as of February 2022, 80 percent have held the status for at least ten years. A path to citizenship would permanently protect these individuals. An estimated 29% of TPS recipients live in a southern border state, the vast majority in California (15%) and Texas (13%).
People from 15 countries are currently eligible for TPS: Burma, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. In March and April 2022, the Biden administration also announced new 18-month TPS designations for Urkaine, Afghanistan, and Cameroon.
Farmworkers
Farmworkers harvest crops and tend to livestock, ensuring that the entire country is fed. Roughly half of 2.4 million agricultural workers are undocumented immigrants who would benefit from immigration reform, according to the 2015-16 National Agricultural Workers Survey, the most recent available data from the U.S. Department of Labor. An estimated half of farmworkers (i.e., approximately 1.2 million) live in a southern border state, the majority in California. Nearly half a million California farmworkers could gain legal status through immigration reform.