Today's figure: Half a million. That's how many people there are who likely qualify but have yet to apply for the Obama administration's program known as DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA allows young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to avoid deportation and to get a work permit for two years.
The DACA program was announced in 2012. For months after, undocumented young people — most of whom were Latino — applied by the hundreds of thousands. It wasn't the DREAM Act they were pushing Congress for, but it was a temporary substitute. That flood has now slowed to a trickle. Eligible young people are no longer coming forward in large numbers on their own
