Study: Nearly half of Clark County’s unauthorized immigrants qualify for deportation relief

By Ana Ley

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Almost half of all undocumented immigrants in Clark County qualify for deportation relief through President Barack Obama’s deferral programs, according to a study released today by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

The report, which provides data for 94 counties with the highest populations of people living in the country illegally, is the first to give a glimpse of how the president’s contentious immigration policies affect local communities.

“Having this information is particularly important as policymakers discuss the potential impact of deferred deportations,” MPI spokeswoman Michelle Mittelstadt said.

Here are three takeaways on the new data:

The percentage of undocumented immigrants who are eligible for relief in Clark County is just under the U.S. average of 46 percent.

In Clark County, which is home to an estimated 99,000 people living in the country illegally, about 42 percent of the undocumented population would be eligible for either:

• The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, created in 2012 to allow certain people who came to the U.S. as children to remain here without being deported. Obama announced that he would be expanding this program during a November trip to Las Vegas.

• The newly created Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program, for which application forms are not yet available. That program would grant relief from deportation to parents of children living in the U.S. legally. Obama also touted this new program during his visit to Las Vegas last year.

The future of both deals is uncertain — the Republican-led House voted 236-191 Wednesday to roll back the 2012 DACA program and overturn DAPA before it begins.

Compared with other regions, Southern Nevada has a relatively high number of undocumented immigrants eligible for the programs.

The top five counties with the largest populations potentially eligible for relief from deportation were ranked as: Los Angeles County, Calif.; Harris County, Texas; Orange County, Calif.; Cook County, Ill.; and Dallas County, Texas.

Clark County fell near the top of the list of 94 counties, ranking at 19th.

Still, bigger states have vastly larger populations of undocumented immigrants — Los Angeles County has a total of 466,000 eligible immigrants, while Clark County has 42,000.

“One thing we’re noticing is there’s a pretty wide swing in terms of the share of people who are eligible,” Mittelstadt said. “Clark County is basically right on the nose with the national (percentage) average.”

While the MPI study looks only at counties’ overall undocumented immigrant numbers, data from the Pew Research Center shows Nevada has the nation’s highest share of unauthorized immigrants as a portion of the state’s general population.

The number of Clark County residents who are potentially eligible for Obama’s new DAPA program is three times as many as those eligible for the 2012 DACA program.

According to MPI, about 31,000 undocumented immigrants in the county could qualify for the new DAPA program, which benefits parents of U.S. citizens or legal residents. By comparison, only 11,000 qualify for the 2012 DACA program, which affects people who arrived in the country when they were 16 or younger.

That means the state could get an unprecedented number of applications for relief from deportation if and when the new program begins.

Still, undocumented immigrants tend to avoid applying for relief out of confusion or apprehension about stepping out of the shadows — especially amid political insecurity about the new rules.

The Migration Policy Institute in August estimated that 25,000 people in Nevada are potentially eligible for DACA, but less than half that many have applied.

“There might be people with convictions who are eligible but unsure, or people who can’t afford the $500 fee,” UNLV law professor Fatma Marouf said. “There tends to be a lot of confusion about these programs, and there is still a lot of fear.”