Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an immigration policy established by the Obama administration in June 2012. The policy allows some individuals who entered the country illegally as minors to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation, and eligibility for a work permit. By 2017 approximately 800,000 individuals, referred to as Dreamers after the DREAM Act bill, were enrolled in the program created by DACA.
The policy was rescinded by the Trump administration on September 5, 2017, with termination delayed until March 5, 2018 to give Congress time to find a solution for the population that was previously eligible. (In the meantime, new applications are not being accepted, but renewal applications are.)
The action has left Dreamers unsure what will happen, and fearful of potentially losing their jobs, losing the health care they currently receive from job-based insurance or Medi-Cal, and/or being deported.
There are an estimated 220,000 DACA recipients in California, the largest number in the country. Those who meet the income requirements (138% of the federal poverty level or $33,534 for a family of four) can qualify for coverage under the state’s “Permanently Residing in the United States under Color of Law” Medi-Cal eligibility category. That coverage is now in question. Those at risk of losing Medi-Cal are age 19 and older, because California decided under a separate law to cover all low-income children, regardless of immigration status, through age 18. That decision was not connected to the DACA program.
With the federal government’s action, nobody will lose coverage in the Medi-Cal program immediately. But that could change after March 5, when DACA’s protections will end unless Congress takes action to protect the program.
