“Dreamers” or threat: Bilingual frame building of DACA immigrants

Abstract

This research analyzes Spanish- and English-language news discourses in the United States following the announcement of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. It identifies how sources quoted by journalists affected framing of stories in five ethnic and general market newspapers. Coverage of Dreamers and DACA was generally positive, especially compared to common representations of undocumented immigrants as criminals and as a threat to the United States. Certain sources were a strong predictor for some frames about DACA, and undocumented people who arrived in the United States when they were children could be analyzed in communication research as a different category of immigrants than other adults.