Deferred Action for Parents of Americans
planned immigration policy that protects from deportation certain undocumented immigrants to the United States who have children who are either American citizens or lawful permanent residents
Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), sometimes called Deferred Action for Parental Accountability, was a planned United States immigration policy to grant deferred action status to certain undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States since 2010 and have children who are either American citizens or lawful permanent residents. It was prevented from going into effect. Deferred action would not be legal status but would come with a three-year renewable employment authorization document (work permit) and exemption from deportation. DAPA was a presidential executive action, not a law passed by Congress.
The program was announced on November 20, 2014 by President Barack Obama, along with a number of immigration reform steps including increased resources for border enforcement, new procedures for high-skilled immigrants, and an expansion of the existing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Several U.S. states filed lawsuits against the federal government on December 3, 2014, arguing that DAPA violates the Constitution and federal statutes. A temporary injunction was issued on February 16, 2015, blocking the program from going into effect while the lawsuit proceeds. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed on November 9, 2015, and a U.S. Supreme Court 4–4 split decision on June 23, 2016, effectively left the block in place.
On June 15, 2017, the Trump administration announced the rescission of the DAPA order.
Background
On June 27, 2013, the U.S. Senate's Gang of Eight passed their comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate.
The public source identifies “Deferred Action for Parents of Americans” as planned immigration policy that protects from deportation certain undocumented immigrants to the United States who have children who are either American citizens or lawful permanent residents. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Deferred, Action and Parents.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25037423. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
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