US begins approving deferred deportation applications

United States officials say they have approved the first set of applications from immigrants seeking a two-year-deportation deferral.

The approvals come a month after they started a programme to suspend deportations of young illegal Caribbean and other immigrants.

Officials have said to date, more than 72,000 immigrants have applied since the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services began accepting applications on August 15.

They say the number of immigrants requesting two-year deportation deferrals were less than the estimated 250,000 that they were prepared to handle in the first month of the programme, but at the current rate, at least 200,000 young immigrants could have applications in the pipeline by the time of the presidential election on November 6.