Can legal status help unauthorized immigrants achieve the American dream? Evidence from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program

This paper examines the housing tenure choices of unauthorized immigrants following the largest immigration policy change in recent years. Our identification strategy exploits the discontinuity in eligibility criteria of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides a renewable two-year reprieve from deportation and work authorization to eligible immigrants. We estimate a difference-in-differences model that compares eligible with ineligible individuals before and after the program's implementation. Our results indicate that DACA eligible household heads become more likely to be homeowners. Thus, DACA increases access to not only the US labor market but also the benefits of homeownership. •We examine the effect of legalization on homeownership following the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.•We use a DID approach that compares eligible immigrants with similar ineligible ones before and after the program.•Our results indicate that DACA eligibility greatly increased the likelihood of being a homeowner.•We additionally consider and provide evidence on possible underlying mechanisms.