Startups Paying Close Attention to DACA Decision
TLDR: Startups are keeping a close watch as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. Access to talent is vital to the success of startups, and numerous studies have shown that immigrants make important contributions to the entrepreneurial community. Policies and decisions that suggest the U.S. is a bad place for immigrants—like a ruling against the DACA policy—would be bad for the startup community.
What’s Happening this Week: On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a group of cases that will decide the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of people who received protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy instituted in 2012. This Obama-era policy, enacted through Executive Action, has been the subject of multiple legal challenges after the Trump Administration rescinded the policy in September of 2017, making the futures of recipients uncertain.
Why it Matters to Startups: Access to qualified talent remains at the forefront of startup needs in order for a successful venture to thrive. While the United States has a diverse candidate pool of workers, these needs are not always met by U.S. citizens—nor are successful American companies run solely by citizens. Immigrants, and the children of immigrants, make significant economic contributions to the U.S. economy as entrepreneurs, consumers, and small business leaders. Rolling back the status of people who arrived in this country as young children will send the message that the U.S. is not a hospitable destination for skilled immigrants who are fundamental to the success of the tech sector.
Since the Trump administration announced their decision to end the DACA program, hundreds of companies—including many tech companies—have spoken out in opposition of the move to end a policy that provided stability to hundreds of thousands of people brought to the U.S. as children. These Dreamers are contributing to the U.S. economy in real, tangible ways.
According to one survey of DACA recipients, roughly 97 percent of recipients are either employed or enrolled in an educational program. These individuals contribute billions in federal, state, and local taxes, and repealing DACA would result in a $460 billion loss in GDP over a decade. They are employed across a range of fields by a wide variety of companies, from small businesses to the top 25 Fortune 500 companies. Importantly, DACA recipients are immense contributors to the American startup community. Five percent of DACA recipients under the age of 25 have started businesses of their own, as well as eight percent of recipients over the age of 25. This rate exceeds that of U.S. citizens launching their own ventures.
Repealing the DACA program would deprive the nation of innovative entrepreneurial voices, and could have a chilling effect on efforts to bring in highly-skilled workers and entrepreneurs. Many DACA recipients work in advanced fields, including the tech and healthcare industries, and shrinking this pool of U.S. startup founders would have disastrous consequences on the U.S. economy. As many as 25 percent of entrepreneurs in the U.S. are immigrants, and the businesses that they run provide thousands of jobs to American citizens.
In 2012, almost 800,000 children brought to the U.S. by their parents were urged to come out of the shadows for a chance at stability and to become a part of the fabric of America. To rescind DACA status not only harms those individuals who put their faith in the U.S. government, but the communities to which they belong—whether it's their local neighborhood or their local startup ecosystem.
On the Horizon.
The House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee will hold a hearing at 2 pm this afternoon to examine the market power of large Internet platforms. The hearing, the fourth in the subcommittee’s ongoing series into allegations of anticompetitive practices, will feature FTC Chairman Joe Simmons and Department of Justice antitrust chief Makan Delrahim.
The House Small Business Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow at 1 pm to investigate “big tech’s impact on small business.” The two-panel hearing will include small business owners from across the country, as well as representatives from Amazon, Google, and other tech organizations.
