Some days back immigrants across the country of the United States were asked by Homeland Security Chief Jeh Johnson to step forward and apply for President Obama’s deferred action program.

In a public function the Chief rolled out the benefits of the plan to the immigrants, in which he said, around 5 million immigrant-aspirants who were living in the country illegally would get an opportunity to live and work without the fear of getting deported back to their countries of origin.

From February 18, 2015 the government will start accepting applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a program which grants deportation relief and work permits to a lot of people who arrived at the US before they were 16 years.

President Obama has changed the program from 2 years to 3 years and expanded the criteria so the program is open to anyone who entered the United States as a child, no matter their current age. The next phase of the program too will be implemented soon, which will offer the same protection for up to 4 million parents of U S citizens.