This Wednesday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, cited a recent Niskanen Center study during a subcommittee hearing on immigration enforcement. The former-subcommittee chairwoman said the study “pretty much proves” that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) did not cause a rush of children to the border.

The hearing was held to examine four immigration enforcement bills, including one bill (H.R. 2278) that would terminate the DACA program under which children who were brought to the U.S. before the age of 16 can apply for legal presence and work permits. While agreeing that the president overreached by implementing DACA in the way that he did, the report showed that the rush of unaccompanied children to the border started well before DACA was ever announced.

Before taking her turn to question the witnesses, Rep. Lofgren entered the Center’s report into the record. “I just wanted to make a couple of corrections,” she said. “There was suggestion that the existence of DACA had somehow instigated the number of unaccompanied minor children coming in, but we just received a report prepared by the Niskanen Center examining the unaccompanied minor child-DACA link that pretty much proves that there is no link.”

Read her full remarks below and watch the video (beginning at 1:36:35).

I just wanted to make a couple of corrections… I also noted that there was suggestion that the existence of DACA had somehow instigated the number of unaccompanied minor children coming in, but we just received a report prepared by the Niskanen Center examining the unaccompanied minor child-DACA link that pretty much proves that there is no link. It’s actually prepared by David Bier who worked for our colleague Mr. Labrador before leaving and joining the nonprofit, and I would ask unanimous consent to enter that into the record as well.

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Read the full study here.