---
title: "Who are the unauthorized immigrants ineligible for Obama’s executive action?"
description: "The 5.8 million unauthorized immigrants not eligible for deportation relief under President Obama’s executive actions are more likely than those eligible to be unmarried and not have U.S.-born children living with them, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis."
date: "2014-12-01"
authors:
  - name: "Jens Manuel Krogstad"
    job_title: "Former Senior Writer and Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/jens-manuel-krogstad/"
  - name: "Jeffrey S. Passel"
    job_title: "Senior Demographer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/jeffrey-s-passel/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/12/01/who-are-the-unauthorized-immigrants-ineligible-for-obamas-executive-action/"
categories:
  - "Immigration & Migration"
  - "Unauthorized Immigration"
---

# Who are the unauthorized immigrants ineligible for Obama’s executive action?

The 5.8 million unauthorized immigrants* not* eligible for deportation relief under President Obama’s executive actions are more likely than those eligible to be unmarried and not have U.S.-born children living with them, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.

The president’s new and existing programs could shield 48% of the nation’s [11.2 million unauthorized immigrants](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2014/11/18/unauthorized-immigrant-totals-rise-in-7-states-fall-in-14/) living in the U.S. from deportation. The executive action announced last month offers three-year work permits and deportation relief to about [4 million unauthorized immigrants](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/11/20/those-from-mexico-will-benefit-most-from-obamas-executive-action), primarily parents who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years and have U.S. citizen or legal resident children.

[![illegal immigrants who are not eligible for Obama immigration programs](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/12/14.11.24_immigrationNotEligible.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2014/12/14.11.24_immigrationNotEligible.png)

A new Pew Research Center analysis examined the demographic characteristics of those *not* eligible for the president’s new policy changes. Here’s what we found:

- **Men who are ineligible for deportation relief are more likely to be single. **Among ineligible adult men, 64% are single, compared with 36% among those who are eligible. In addition, the number of ineligible single men outnumber the eligible single men by a more than two-to-one margin – 2.1 million to 875,000.
- **Similar shares of those ineligible and eligible for deportation relief have a job**. About seven-in-ten (73%) adults ineligible for relief are working, compared with 69% of those eligible.
- States in the West with [larger numbers of Mexicans](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/11/21/immigrants-in-western-states-most-likely-to-benefit-from-obamas-executive-action/) tend to have lower shares of unauthorized immigrant population who are ineligible for relief than states in the East. For example, **48% of California’s unauthorized immigrant population is ineligible for relief**, compared with 61% in New York.
- There are 250,000 unauthorized immigrant adults with U.S.-born children living at home who are ineligible for relief because they entered the country within the past five years. **Just 4% of ineligible adults have U.S.-born children at home**, compared with 77% of those eligible. In addition, those eligible for relief have lived in the U.S. an average of six years longer than those ineligible –15 years among those eligible, compared with 9 years among the ineligible.
- About **350,000 unauthorized children under 18 are ineligible for deportation relief** because they didn’t meet DACA’s program requirements, such as arriving in the U.S. more than five years ago.
- Meanwhile, **thousands are eligible for relief under more than one program**. An estimated 200,000 are eligible both under the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and because they have a U.S.-born child living with them and have lived in the country for at least five years.