Renewed optimism and spatial mobility: Legal consciousness of Latino Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and their families in Los Angeles

Abstract

In 2012, President Obama signed Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an executive action that provided deportation relief, a temporary work permit, and driver licenses for almost 800,000 undocumented immigrants who grew up in the US. Drawing on 100 in-depth interviews in Los Angeles, this article documents DACA’s consequences for the legal consciousness of DACA recipients and their families in the period of 2013–2016. Although the Trump Administration chose to phase out the program in 2017, evidence shows that DACA temporarily benefited families in seemingly mundane but cumulative and powerful ways. State-issued IDs and work permits led to many more opportunities to achieve their goals, experience spatial mobility, and establish greater family independence through interdependence. Together, and even though DACA targeted only single members of families, these experiences shifted entire families’ legal consciousness toward a stronger sense of pride and belonging in the United States.