I do not write much about immigration outside of the guestworker area. My immediate concern over the upcoming Supreme Court decision in the DACA case is over how the opinion will affect American workers. Consequently, over the past few months I have been reading many articles about DACA.
Recently, the American press has been reporting numerical distortions so outrageous that my mathematics degree is forcing me to venture outside the guestworker zone. Just look at the latest marketing for the DACA program and its effect on fighting the China Virus:
- "Striking down DACA would eliminate thousands of health care workers, thwarting America's pandemic response";
- "Thousands Of DACA Recipients Work On Covid-19 Front Lines: Report";
- "Houston Dreamer Jesus Contreras on Frontline Health Care Work in the Age of the Coronavirus";
- "Thousands of 'Dreamers' are health care workers on the front lines — but fear they could soon face deportation"; and
- "With DACA down to the wire, immigrant health-care workers fight the pandemic as possible deportation looms".
Take a look at the figures from such a source and put them in context:
According to the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services organization at Yale Law School and the National Immigration Law Center, 27,000 DACA recipients are healthcare workers.
About 800,000 illegal aliens have received work authorizations under DACA. That means slightly over 3 percent of DACA recipients are working in healthcare.
However 11 percent of the overall workforce is employed in healthcare.
There are about 16 million people employed in healthcare in the United States. DACA recipients then make up 0.17 percent of healthcare workers and DACA recipients are dramatically under-represented in healthcare fields.
A Supreme Court decision on DACA is not going to adversely affect the fight against the China Virus.