PRESS RELEASE: New York State immigrants who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) deserve the opportunity to pursue their professional ambitions. Today the Board of Regents took an important step to ensure that DACA recipients can live their dreams. By providing a clear pathway for qualified DACA recipients to become teachers, pharmacists, doctors, nurses, and more, the Board of Regents has created positive change for New York State.

This rule is good for New York City: it will increase the number and diversity of people engaged in vital professions such as education and health care, and it will benefit our economy.

Many New York City immigrants may stand to benefit from this rule change, including nearly 18,000 DACA recipients who have completed at least some college, based on estimates by the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and New York City’s Center for Economic Opportunity from American Community Survey data.

Read the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Department of Education, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, and Young Men’s Initiative joint comment to the Board of Regents supporting this rule change, published last month: http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/immigrants/downloads/pdf/comment_bdofregentslicensing_final.pdf