Why momentum for deferred action has slowed since September

Young people wait in line to enter the office of The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) on August 15, 2012 in Los Angeles, California, on the first day of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. US authorities began taking applications for deferred deportations from undocumented immigrants brought here as children, an initiative that could benefit up to 1.7 million people, as long lines of applicants, many who have long feared separation from their families and deportation from the country they've always considered home, formed outside consulates, advocacy offices and law firms.

Think back to August: the weather was hot, the presidential race was in full swing and the Obama Administration rolled out something called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.The program offers temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country before their 16th birthday.

Think back to August: the weather was hot, the presidential race was in full swing and the Obama Administration rolled out something called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

The program offers temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country before their 16th birthday. On August 15, the day it became available, people came out in droves, some even camping over night to sign up.

Applications for the program peaked in September, but have since slowed and no one knows exactly why.

Here to offer some theories is KPCC's Multi-American immigration reporter and blogger Leslie Berestein Rojas.