DACA at a Crossroads: Key Takeaways and Action Steps for Funders

This week, AAPIP convened philanthropic leaders, legal experts, and community organizers to address the precarious legal status of DACA and its impact on the 390,000 AANHPI Dreamers navigating an increasingly hostile immigration landscape. Co-sponsored by GCIR and Philanthropy Northwest, the briefing delivered what funders need most right now: current legal intelligence, concrete funding pathways, and permission structures to move forward internally.

What We Learned

The legal landscape shifted in January 2025. As Angeline Chen noted, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled major parts of DACA unlawful while allowing current renewals to continue. Initial applications remain blocked nationwide. DACA recipients are being detained despite supposed protections, signaling enforcement changes that create uncertainty for all Dreamers.

AANHPI Dreamers face compounded barriers. Lower DACA application rates despite eligibility, cultural stigma around undocumented status, language barriers in accessing legal services, and limited outreach from organizations focused primarily on Latinx communities mean hundreds of thousands of eligible AANHPI individuals remain unprotected.

Employment pathways exist but require strategic investment. Path2Papers demonstrated a replicable model: connecting DACA recipients with employers who can sponsor permanent residency through existing visa pathways. Success requires employers with organized HR infrastructure willing to navigate the process, plus funding for legal support that nonprofits often cannot provide.

The timing matters. As Ivy Suriyopas from GCIR emphasized: “A dollar now might be worth five or six dollars next year.” With attacks on civil society accelerating and the Dream Act of 2025 creating a legislative window, philanthropic action now shapes outcomes in ways delayed funding cannot.

Your existing portfolio already touches this issue. If you fund youth development, economic mobility, racial equity, or workforce development, DACA intersects your work. Megan Kludt from Path2Papers shared how Ballmer Group’s approach illustrates this point: framing immigrant pathways through education, economic contributions, and employee retention rather than as separate from mission.

What You Can Do Now

1. Participate in pooled funding to help DACA holders obtain permanent residency Pooled funding vehicles reduce individual foundation lift. These collaborative approaches allow you to engage without building internal immigration expertise from scratch.
2. Support AANHPI organizations working directly with Dreamers Most funders lack awareness of AANHPI-serving immigrant organizations and their critical role reaching Dreamers. See below for a curated list of organizations ready for investment.
3. Fund employment pathway programs like Path2Papers Models that connect DACA recipients with employers willing to sponsor permanent residency work, but require financial support for legal fees, capacity building for employer HR teams, and resources for direct representation that nonprofits cannot provide at scale.
4. Invest in organizing and people power As Jung Woo Kim from NAKASEC stressed: funders should invest in organizing that builds people power to change systems. Legal services alone cannot address the root challenges Dreamers face.
5. Make the internal case at your foundation Use GCIR’s Making the Case for Supporting Immigrants in Your Grantmaking: A Messaging Toolkit for Funders to develop language that resonates with your trustees. The toolkit provides data, framing, and responses to common concerns that can help you navigate internal dynamics and expand your foundation’s immigration investments.
6. Think creatively about where your mission connects Immigration funding includes detention, deportation defense, unaccompanied minors, DACA, employment pathways, and family-based immigration. Examine where your existing mission intersects these issues rather than treating immigration as entirely separate work.

Organizations Supporting AANHPI DACA Recipients and Undocumented Communities

These organizations serve AANHPI immigrant communities and are ready for philanthropic partnership:

1. Access California Services | CA
2. AHRI Center | CA
3. Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California | CA
4. Asian Americans Advancing Justice
5. Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago | IL
6. Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta | GA
7. Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW) | MA
8. Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) | NYC
9. Asian Law Alliance | Silicon Valley
10. Asian Law Caucus
11. Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center
12. Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC)
13. The Ba Lô Project
14. Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) | SF/Bay Area
15. Collective Freedom & ROOTS
16. Hamkae Center | VA
17. Korean Resource Center | LA
18. MinKwon Center for Community Action | NYC
19. Minnesota8 (MN8) | MN
20. The National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
21. New Light Wellness
22. Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) | RI
23. Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN)
24. Transforming Generations | MN
25. The Urban Village | MN
26. VietLead | PA

Next Steps

AAPIP remains available to connect funders with movement leaders and organizations as you develop your immigration funding strategies. For questions or to discuss how your foundation can engage, contact us at aapip@aapip.org.

The legal threats to DACA are accelerating. Investments now will shape outcomes that protect our communities.