Just over half of those who are living in Georgia and are eligible for the Obama administration’s deportation deferral program have applied for it, according to a new report.
In all, 21,000 — or 54 percent — of the estimated 39,000 Georgians who are eligible for the two-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program have submitted applications for it, the report says.
That tracks closely with the nation’s application rate of 55 percent, according to the report by the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank that evaluates migration and refugee policies. The $465 application fee is among the reasons why some aren’t applying, the institute says in its report.
“Assistance with the fees, however, targeted to the poorest unauthorized immigrant communities could help raise DACA participation,” says the report, which bases its estimates partly on census data.
The Deferred Action program offers renewable two-year reprieves from deportation and federal work permits. Those eligible include immigrants who were illegally brought here as children, who attended school here and who have not been convicted of felonies.
Since it went into effect in 2012, the program has accepted 553,197 people, according to federal figures through March 31. Of those, 17,356 live in Georgia.
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