Six weeks into the new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, 120,000 young people have applied for work permits. This is slightly less than 10% of those estimated to be eligible. Several local attorneys have told me that the number of new applicants appears to have diminished over the last two weeks. Although a couple of hundred applicants have received work permits already, lawyers say that it is only when tens of thousands of work authorizations have been issued that those holding back are likely to step forward and apply.
