A few more comments on last night’s debate.

In a move that could increase participation in the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Mitt Romney said in an interview with the Denver Post that he would not deport those young immigrants approved for the program.

The Obama Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has been operative since August 15. The conflicting but mostly positive reports show tens of thousands of applicants for the two-year reprieve for undocumented immigrants who meet the requirements of having come to this country as children, and completed some level of college or served in the military.

However, only 29 applicants have actually received the two-year deferred action status so far.

The Department of Homeland Security today announced a change to immigration rules, saying that they would consider same-sex couples as “family relationships” for the purposes of immigration policy. Specifically, the written guidance reads, “In an effort to make clear the definition of the phrase ‘family relationships,’ I have directed ICE to disseminate written guidance to the field that the interpretation of the phrase ‘family relationships’ includes long-term, same-sex partners.” This means that same-sex couples in binational relationships would have their coupling considered as part of any immigration proceedings. There are roughly 36,000 such couples today.

Scott Lemieux has a good piece in The American Prospect about the federal court ruling blocking the indefinite detention provisions of last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). While Lemieux expressed a lack of confidence that the injunction would be upheld by the appeals courts, he praised the action because of the potential for abuse.

The first day of the Obama Administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program saw thousands of DREAM-eligible youth line up for the chance to apply for two years of temporary legal status. This policy shift was touted heavily at the Democratic National Convention. After the initial flush, however, applications have slowed amidst a variety of issues.

Republicans are so desperate to paint President Obama as a soft-border friend to the undocumented, they’re trying to redefine the word “deportation” so that it doesn’t count a category of deportations that are simply returning people who are caught to other points cross border. So what is their message to the Latino community?

A new study from the Migration Policy Institute suggests that 1.76 million unauthorized immigrants could be eligible for deferred action status, under the Obama Administration’s new policy, which kicks off August 15. The DREAM-eligible immigrants who can be helped by this policy are those who were brought to America before the age of 16, have resided in the US for the past five years, have no criminal record (defined as a felony, “significant misdemeanor,” or three or more smaller misdemeanors), and are either currently in school, have graduated high school, or participated in the armed forces.

Despite all the fanfare over the Obama Administration’s announcement of deferred action status for DREAM-eligible youth, it hasn’t actually begun. Eligible applicants must fill out a form to get the deferred action status for themselves, and that process will commence on August 15. And US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced yesterday that the immigrants will have to pay the US government $465 for the privilege.

Yesterday I noted that the vaunted deportation reviews promised by the Department of Homeland Security haven’t actually taken place. Some incredible youth activists in Florida set out to prove this. They intentionally got themselves placed in immigrant detention centers to uncover the others held in the facilities, and they found many who should not be there.