Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

As of Feb. 14:

199,460

applications have been approved.

438,372 applications have been submitted.

Updated with March 15 data

Correction: The article is updated with the correct figure for cases approved in November, not for accepted applications.

The number of acceptd applications for deferred-action status is approaching a half-million undocumented individuals, but the submission rate is slowing, according to monthly data released (PDF) by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

November was the peak for applicants seeking to secure rights to remain in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Obama authorized last summer for people under 31 by June 15 and who came to the U.S. before age 16.

By then, federal processes were in place and immigration attorneys more familiar with procedures, so 47,954 people were granted rights to remain in the U.S. for two years.

The cumulative total of accepted applications through February was 437,441; the number of reviewed approvals reached 221,776.

Thus far, 453,589 applications have been received since USCIS began accepting them in August. Nearly 16,000 of those applications have been rejected (about 3 percent). Further, in mid-March an additional 100,000 are under review.

Through mid-March, the number of applicants from Mexico is more than 4.5 times the total of people applying from the nine other highest-drawing nations combined. So far, applicants from Mexico top 338,000, followed by El Salvador with nearly 18,500.

About 27 percent of the applicants reside in California (128,412), followed distantly by Texas at 73,258 and New York at 25,735.

The Department of Homeland Security has been implementing the Obama DACA program, which the president approved via memorandum on June 15. The first applications were accepted by Homeland Security's USCIS two months later.

Estimates of of total number of eligible youths range from 800,000 to 1.76 million.

Guidelines and requirements can be found here.

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