Only Half of Those Eligible for DACA in Arizona Have Applied

"A year after the Obama administration said it would defer deportation of immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children, only about half of eligible Arizonans have applied for the program.  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it had accepted applications from 18,449 Arizonans since the program was announced last June by President Barack Obama.  That is just under 53 percent of the 34,836 people in the state that the Immigration Policy Center estimated were eligible for the program as of late last year.  Nationally, an estimated 59 percent of eligible immigrants have applied to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.  Advocates attribute the lagging numbers to the high cost of the application, a lack of access to legal advice and, in Arizona, to perceived hostility from the state government." - Emilie Eaton, Cronkite News Service, June 21, 2103.