It just got easier and more affordable for Dreamers to buy a home.

Recipients of the federal DACA program, known as Dreamers, can once again apply for FHA loans, according to the Federal Housing Administration. 

The program was closed to recipients for three years under the Trump administration. Recently, the FHA reversed that decision. That means Dreamers can access the popular first-time home buyer program that offers a lower down payment than most conventional loans. 

“It’s very exciting. It’s a way that a lot of immigrant families start their American Dream,” said Jose Patiño, a Dreamer and the director of education and advocacy for the nonprofit that aids and advocates for Dreamers and undocumented youth in Arizona. 

A former loan officer, Patiño said being accepted into DACA allows young adults to obtain credit cards and build credit and that an FHA loan is one of the few ways for immigrants to build wealth. 

“It’s the first step to be able to build wealth, so it’s such an important opportunity that people are going to be able to have now,” said Patiño, 32, of Gilbert.   

Before the program was closed in 2018, Patiño and four of his siblings bought homes with an FHA loan and later refinanced them through conventional lenders. His eldest sister recently paid off her loan in full. 

FHA loans offer low down payment, modest credit requirements

FHA loans have some of the least stringent qualifying standards, requiring  a 500 to 580 credit score minimum to qualify. Lenders can also accept up to 50 percent debt-to-income ratios.

FHA loans only require a 3.5 percent minimum down payment, making it easier to purchase a home or property.

DACA recipients must abide by certain rules that come with federally backed loans, including that the home must be their primary residence or, if they purchase a multifamily property, that they must live in one of the units.  

They also must have a valid Social Security card and valid work authorization. 

Home lenders, real estate industry advocates for DACA buyers

For Arizona, the FHA announcement was good news for real estate agents, lenders and others who advocate for Hispanic homeownership and equity in mortgage lending.

Officials from and its Hispanic market subsidiary , said last month that they were “extremely proud of our country” for making home ownership more accessible to DACA recipients. 

Americasa was created in 2019 to provide a team of advisers for the Hispanic community. Since then, the two companies have originated more than one billion dollars in loans for Hispanic clients. 

“Our vision for creating Americasa was to build a mortgage company that lowered the barriers to homeownership for the Hispanic community. Giving Dreamers access to FHA loans gives us a powerful tool to continue driving this important vision,” Richard Steinberg, Founder and Chairman of NMB & Americasa, said in a prepared statement. 

DACA recipients represent large market in Arizona 

DACA recipients also represent a large market in the state. Arizona is one of the five top states for Hispanics and DACA recipients. Currently, there are about 24,000 Dreamers here.

According to conducted in 2017, approximately 15-20 percent of DACA recipients over 25 years old purchase homes. 

With Dreamers allowed back in the market, Patiño expects to see that  percentage rise with more homebuyers purchasing a first home.  

“A lot of us have really begun and continue on our financial goals with the DACA program,” he said.

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The CEO of the largest business advocacy group in America, the United States Chamber of Commerce, outlined a plan to help the nation’s economy fully recover from the pandemic during his 2021 annual Address in Washington, D.C. 

First and foremost, businesses and the U.S. Congress must work to heal a divided nation and get the public vaccinated, said Thomas Donohue, the CEO of the Chamber, who made the virtual address this month to about 10,000 attendees worldwide. 

“It’s true that, at home and abroad, we are operating at a time when people don’t always have a lot of faith in institutions. There’s mistrust in government, questions about the credibility of our democratic systems, contempt for capitalism. For different reasons, these factors have helped drive rising support for nationalism or socialism and other divisions,” Donohue said. “Some even ask if these are signals of national decline.

“Well, to that I say: no one has ever bet against America and won. We have it within us to make this a pivot point in our history.”

Call on nation to “rally for recovery” 

In his speech, Donohue urged both industry and national policymakers to “rally for recovery” through infrastructure, immigration reform, workforce reskilling, and global competitiveness. 

With 10 million American jobs lost in the last year, and small business disproportionately impacted – particularly minority – and women-owned businesses, many of which have closed – the Chamber is calling on policymakers to focus on a “broad-based” economic recovery. 

“Some industries, businesses, and segments of the workforce have thrived,” he said. “But it’s a very different story for those who have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Entire industries have been decimated because people aren’t traveling, gathering, shopping, or going out like they used to.” 

To help achieve that, Donohue laid out the Chamber’s priorities this year:   

Continued economic relief for those hardest hit 

Donohue said the Chamber will work with the incoming Congress and President Joe Biden’s administration to ensure industries, businesses and workers make it through the end of the pandemic-induced economic crisis. With continued stimulus relief from Congress, growth could return to pre-pandemic levels by the third quarter of this year, he said. 

Long-overdue infrastructure package 

In what has become an annual tradition, Donohue called for national lawmakers to finally pass a “fiscally and environmentally responsible” infrastructure package. 

One way to raise productivity, create jobs, and drive up incomes in a hurry is through a package to modernize infrastructure including roads and bridges and critical networks and to upgrade and expand technology like broadband to deal with the new digital economy where millions of Americans are now working remotely, he said. 

“Even in a 50-50 Senate and a House divided by 5 votes, this can be done—and it might build some goodwill for bipartisan progress on other priorities,” Donohue said. “We’ve been working on this for more than 20 years. Let’s find a way to pay for it, and let’s get moving. This year, there can be no excuses for failure.”

Reskilling an “inclusive” American workforce to meet job demand 

Reskilling workers with an emphasis on women and people of color will foster economic growth, Donohue said. The chamber will be pressing Congress for rapid training programs to connect the unemployed with jobs in new sectors. Employer-led initiatives should lead the way to align industry needs and in-demand skills.

“Some of the best-paying sectors—such as health care or financial and professional services—have more job openings than available workers. If we do this right and do it quickly, we will improve the living standard for millions of Americans and get our economy growing even faster,” he said.

Tackle racial inequality and advance immigration reform  

In addition to job reskilling, Donohue stressed that policymakers need to tackle race-based systemic inequality in education, entrepreneurship, and the criminal justice system – as outlined in the Chamber’s – and immigration reforms to ensure the American workforce is highly skilled. 

Pro-business policies 

As a new government prepares to take the reins, it must not return to excessive regulation or anti-competitive taxes, Donohue warned, citing the positive effects of regulatory relief and pro-business policies on the economy before the pandemic. 

“Now is exactly the wrong time to further test the resiliency of businesses by hiking taxes or heaping on new regulations that do more harm than good,” he said.  

Global engagement to reach 95 percent of consumers 

Finally, Donohue spoke of the need for America to “reengage with the world” through a trade agenda that is focused on selling products to the 95 percent of consumers who live beyond U.S. borders. 

In recent years, the nation’s resilience has been tested through trade wars and tariffs, he said. 

“Yes, let’s make more products in America, but let’s also sell them to the rest of the world. We must extend our reach to the 95 percent of the world’s customers who live beyond our borders. We must catch up to the countries that are inking new trade deals left and right. And we must lift the tariffs that have hurt American manufacturers and farmers and have been paid by American companies and their customers.”

Donohue also called for the U.S. to reaffirm American leadership in multilateral organizations like the and the .

Engage strategically with fastest growing market: China 

China is the biggest global challenge the nation faces, Donohue said. It’s also the biggest market. 

“We must work to stabilize the relationship through strength and cooperation. At the same time we also have to confront the unfair trade and industrial policies that China uses against U.S. companies,” he said. “We must work with our allies to stand up to China, while also pursuing new negotiations with Beijing to protect our intellectual property.”

Growth is fastest path to shrink “extraordinary” expenditures of 2020 

The pandemic is far from over, but if Congress sufficiently supports the economy with the relief it needs, the nation should recover more quickly and be better able to pay down the nation’s $27 trillion debt.

Arizona Chamber voices optimism as new president enters office 

As President Biden entered office Wednesday, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry voiced its optimism in working toward common . Many of its priorities align directly with the U.S. Chamber’s include tariff-free trade, an infrastructure package that includes water infrastructure and updated ports of entry, and immigration reform to help employers and workers including providing a path to citizenship for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival Program (DACA). 

“We’re encouraged that President Biden is going to make immigration reform a top priority of the early days of his administration,” said Glenn Hamer, president and CEO at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry. “We will strongly support a plan that puts DACA recipients and Dreamers on a path to citizenship, which we are confident will receive broad, bipartisan support.” 

The business community also looks forward to working with the Biden administration in reforming the country’s “byzantine visa system,” Hamer said. 

“Too many jobs across the economy are going unfulfilled, but a better visa policy can help. We can also build on the promise of the TN visa class and make it easier for professionals in our USMCA partner countries Canada and Mexico to bring their talents here. We also want to work with the new administration on a plan to safely and responsibly ease pandemic-related border travel restrictions.”

To read a complete list of the U.S. Chamber’s goals for this year, go to .

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Immigration reform advocates across Arizona welcomed the news this month that a federal judge ordered the full reopening of the DACA program to allow not only current recipients to sign up for another two years but to allow new applicants as well.

Whether the ruling will stand is unknown. But for those who have waited years, it’s still a reason to celebrate, said Reyna Montoya, a DACA recipient who came to Arizona at age 10 with her undodumented parents who were fleeing violence in Tijuana, Mexico. 

“It’s really exciting. We’re talking about 300,000 applicants (in the U.S.) that may be applying,” said Reyna, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit , which works on behalf of DACA youth and undocumented students. 

Arizona reaps economic, intellectual benefits from Dreamers

For Arizona, the court ruling means approximately 25,000 current “Dreamers” and potentially thousands more young adults who can continue to work, attend school and contribute to local, state and federal taxes, said Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

“The ruling was a relief for tens of thousands of DACA recipients and those who want to apply for the deferral program who are our friends, neighbors, coworkers and business owners who contribute to the richness of our state,” Hamer said.

Arizona has one of the highest numbers of DACA recipients, who were brought here as young children by their undocumented parents. 

Most are working and going to school, according to a number of studies. Without them, Arizona’s economy would suffer. Phoenix and Mesa rank among the top cities in America that benefit from these young workers and students, according to the public policy research organization, the (CAP) in Washington, D.C. Of current households in Maricopa County that are eligible for the DACA program, they contribute nearly $235 million in federal taxes and $143 million in state and local taxes each year, CAP research shows. 

With mortgage to pay, this Dreamer dares to hope for a permanent path 

Montoya, who has a master’s degree from Grand Canyon University, a home mortgage, a recently purchased new car and many other trappings of , said the court ruling is “exciting” but bittersweet.   

As has occurred ever since DACA was implemented in 2012, each courtroom win for DACA leads to another legal challenge, she said. 

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Trump administration’s 2017 termination of DACA. This month, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in New York fully reinstated the program. 

Today, another federal judge in Houston will hear a challenge to that ruling. Texas and eight other states have sued stating the program is unconstitutional.  

Montoya and other DACA recipients are hoping Congress will end their years of waiting and resolve the matter once and for all.   

“We’re hoping to see, as Joe Biden takes the presidency, that he would make a real effort to work across the aisle with Democrats and Republicans to make sure we have a pathway to citizenship,” she said.

Vast majority of DACA recipients work, half are essential employees 

For Arizona, these young adults not only represent potential employees and entrepreneurs, they are essential employees whose wages benefit the state. 

The vast majority of the nation’s DACA-eligible individuals — 93 percent — are working if they’re not in school, said Jeremy Robbins, the executive director of the national bipartisan immigration research group . 

“More than half of DACA-eligible immigrants are essential workers, and this ruling is a victory for them and their communities,” Robbins said about the recent court ruling.

If DACA recipients are deported, Arizona stands to lose more than $1.3 billion in annual GDP, according to CAP research. Nationally, the loss to the nation would be about $23.4 billion, according to New American Economy. 

DACA’s impact on employment 

A national survey of DACA recipients by the Center for American Progress found that 88.5 percent are currently employed. For those 25 and older, 89.1 percent are working. 

Other survey findings show that after becoming DACA recipients:

• 63.2 percent of respondents reported moving to a job with better pay
• 52.8 percent reported moving to a job with better working conditions
• 52.6 percent reported moving to a job that “better fits my education and training”
• 54.5 percent reported moving to a job that “better fits my long-term career goals”

Dreamers outpace general population in business creation

DACA recipients also continue to outpace the general population in terms of business creation rates. The survey showed that 6.1 percent of respondents started their own businesses after receiving DACA. Among respondents 25 years old and older, it is 7 percent. 

Moreover, 16.7 percent reported obtaining professional licenses after receiving DACA. This increases to 18.3 percent among respondents ages 25 and older.

Who is eligible for DACA 

When individuals are accepted into the DACA program, they are considered legal residents and can apply for employment authorization. However, there is no direct path from deferred action to lawful permanent residence or to citizenship. And, the status can be revoked at any time by the DHS. 

To apply for DACA, individuals must meet certain criteria including:

• Were under 31 years of age on June 15, 2012
• Came to the U.S. while under the age of 16
• Have continuously resided in the U.S. from June 15, 2007 to the present
• Are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained a GED, or have been honorably discharged from the Coast Guard or armed forces
• Have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor, or more than three misdemeanors of any kind; and do not pose a threat to national security or public safety

For more information, visit:

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The Supreme Court is expected to rule any day on the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era policy that  shields from deportation millions of those whose parents brought them to the United States at a young age. President Trump’s Administration the program early in his term, arguing that such sweeping immigration policy should be the domain of Congress, not solely the Executive Branch.

In 2017, when the administration announced its intention to terminate DACA, President Trump issued a regarding his decision: “I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents. But we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws.”

Details of the case

The case before the court is Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, and justices will determine if the administration followed correct protocol and procedure in terminating the program. This includes proper justification for the decision and adequate adherence to the processes in place.

, a DACA recipient and the founder and CEO of Aliento AZ, a DACA advocacy group and , there are “three to four likely scenarios.”

The “worst case-scenario for DACA recipients” is that the Supreme Court not only rules that the president followed proper procedure, but that the program itself was unconstitutional. This means that “it can set a precedent for other programs in the future,” says Montoya.

A more likely equally distressing outcome for DACA recipients is that the president’s termination of the program was justified and that the court will allow a “phase-out” of the program.

Another possibility is that the Supreme Court sends the case back down to lower courts. While not ideal for proponents of the program, it does mean that it would continue to be litigated and thus avoid an immediate termination.

“One of the deepest fears” among “DACA-mented” individuals is that the program could be terminated “on-the spot.” However unlikely, it is still within the realm of possibility.

Whatever the outcome, it is sure to be one of great importance.

Luis Acosta’s story

Luis Acosta, a public affairs professional, had the opportunity to share his story as an immigrant and DACA-recipient.

“My family came to the United States when I was two-years old,” says Acosta, “Growing up during S.B. 1070 and the Sheriff [Joe] Arpaio raids, you learn to hide.” 

Acosta was able to go public about his DACA status when he served as Arizona’s director for the Mike Bloomberg for President campaign earlier this year and was, featured in a campaign video on immigration policy.

The focus of his career has been working internally within organizations “to help them draft and create pragmatic policy that’s really going to push everybody forward in a positive direction.”

For him, this moment is a crossroads. A program “that has given so many opportunities just in the state of Arizona” is now at risk of termination. There are “roughly 30,000” DACA-mented people in the state. Each and everyone of them is worried that once again they will have to go into hiding.

There are “countless people in Arizona who have been nothing but stand-up citizens, and now their lives are being left in limbo,” Acosta says.

Economic impact

Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, believes that keeping the DACA program in place is “the right thing to do morally. You start there.” But, he says, you cannot neglect the enormous positive economic impact immigrants—particularly DACA recipients—have in Arizona.

“These are people who are going to university. They’re working. They’ve been in the military,” Hamer said. “They’re all contributing to a better Arizona and to a better America.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also made clear: “Ending DACA would be a nightmare for Dreamers. A nightmare for businesses. A nightmare for America’s economy.”

According to a compiled by the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, “DACA enrolled and eligible immigrants contribute roughly $2 billion each year in state and local taxes.” Deporting DACA recipients could “cost $60 billion and reduce economic growth by $280 billion.” This means that it could cost the United States “over $460 billion in economic output over a decade.”

What’s next?

There is one sure path to comprehensive immigration reform that all sides seem to agree on: bipartisan cooperation in Congress. Despite the hyper-polarization of the current world, polls show a glimmer of hope for proponents.

According to a by Gallup, an all-time high of 55% of Americans believe that immigrants “mostly help” the economy. Furthermore, over 80% of Americans favor a path to citizenship for undocumented people currently living within the United States. Better yet for DACA proponents, a revealed that 83% of Americans favor the DACA program specifically.When President Trump approved the winding down of the program in 2017, he also made clear that he would favor congressional action to renew the program. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, then-White House press secretary, that the president wanted “DACA made permanent as part of ‘comprehensive’ immigration legislation.”

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Last September, President Trump set a deadline for the end of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a program that temporarily protected from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. It’s now up to Congress to find a solution. Read the .

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The CEO of  is speaking out in support of workers in the country illegally but who have been deferred from deportation by a federal program. Read the .

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