Univision Explains How Rescinding DACA Will Damage Social Security And Medicare

Study: Immigrant Workers Contribute Billions To American Retirement Security

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Univision provided much-needed context around president-elect Donald Trump's promise to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, explaining how the impact of ending the program reaches beyond just the immigrant community, affecting the national economy as a whole.

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised to end President Obama's executive action known as DACA, a program that grants certain undocumented immigrants who arrived to the U.S. as minors temporary protection from deportation. At the same time, Trump insisted that he would "save" Social Security and Medicare.

On the December 13 edition of Noticiero Univisión: Edición Nocturna, Univision reporter Juan Carlos Aguiar explained that ending DACA would have a devastating impact on Social Security and Medicare. Aguiar's report centered on a study done by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, which found that ending DACA would reduce contributions to Social Security and Medicare by $19.9 billion and $4.6 billion, respectively, over ten years. 

The report shows how Trump's anti-immigrant policies would be damaging not only to immigrants but also to the entire American economy:

Translated transcript: 

ENRIQUE ACEVEDO (CO-HOST): One of the biggest worries among the Hispanic community is whether President-elect Donald Trump follows through with the threat of eliminating the program known as DACA, the program that protects thousands of young people from deportation. But as Juan Carlos Aguiar explains, if this measure is implemented, not only will immigrant communities find themselves profoundly affected, but also the U.S. economy. 

JUAN CARLOS AGUIAR: Whether the president-elect follows through with his promises is one of the biggest fears of undocumented immigrants. That Donald Trump could leave this program terminated terrifies more than 750,000 young beneficiaries of DACA. DACA doesn't only give them peace, but it also allows them to have a driver's license, work authorization, and to remain legally in the country, even in a temporary way, without the fear of looking over their shoulder to see if they are being pursued by the law.

ANGÉLICA SALAS (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CHIRLA): Every person who has applied -- almost 800,000 young people -- they are no longer going to have their legal permit to work in this country.

AGUIAR: A study done by the organization Immigrant Legal Resource Center indicates that if Trump ends this executive measure implemented by Barack Obama in 2012, the nation would -- in the span of ten years -- stop receiving $19.9 billion in Social Security payments, and $4.6 billion corresponding to Medicare.
SALAS: It's a loss for the national economy of billions of dollars. And the future of these young people also would be in great uncertainty.

AGUIAR: According to the same research, currently at least 87 percent of DACA beneficiaries, or 645,000 people, have formal employment. Their average salary is $13.96 per hour, a salary that pays state and federal taxes. 

SALAS: Young people that are contributing with their taxes as well as with their work in industries such as in schools as teachers, as lawyers, as doctors, scientists, all of them are going to have to return to a life of uncertainty. 

AGUIAR: Activists in favor of undocumented immigrants hope that once January 20th comes around, President Donald Trump will hear the goodness of the work of millions of people who are only pursuing the American dream.