As the immigration reform battle rages on, debates continue on both sides of the aisle about how to best solve the rapidly growing border crisis. 

The high number of unaccompanied child migrants from Central America has prompted President Obama to request $3.7 billion in aid from Congress, while Republicans refuse to agree to reforms that do not include increasing security at the border and rolling back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 

Last month, the federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency released data about the people participating in the DACA program, which recently celebrated its second anniversary. Audrey Singer, senior fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, presented "Two Years of DACA Implementation: Learning from the Metro Experience" at an event hosted by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The data is telling about areas participating in the program, and whether it has been effective. 

Recent data on DACA accounts for 75 metropolitan areas, and 82 percent of requests nationwide since the program started in September 2013. Most metro areas had between 1,000 and 9,000 applications, but 11 have have at least 11,000 DACA requests. 

Los Angeles had the highest number of applicants at 78,000, or 13 percent of total applicants nationwide. There were 44,000 applicants in the New York metro area, and Chicago, Riverside, Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco had between 12,000 and 31,000 applicants each. The 10 metro areas therefore make up half of the total applicants. 

Approvals of applications varied in different cities. The approval range in metropolitan areas is 89 percent, with Chicago and Riverside having the highest approval rates at 93 percent each. California also has a high approval rate of applications, along with Tulsa, Albuquerque and Oklahoma City. 

Despite New York and Houston's high number of applicants, they have lower than average approval rates. Miami and Boston have fewer applications and have lower approval rates. 

There are also lower-than-average approval rates in newer immigrant destinations such as Reno, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville, areas of Florida and Indianapolis. Yet, because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services does not distinguish pending applications from denials, some metro areas may not have higher denial rates; they either have higher denials or more pending applications. 

Singer says there is not enough information from the data to know how many have been denied and how many are still pending. 

"We can assume that differences in application levels and approval rates reflect the size and characteristics of the underlying undocumented population, including birthplace, age structure and educational enrollment and attainment," she wrote.

"No doubt the infrastructure in place to assist immigrants considering DACA applications matters," she said. "Well-informed, well-intentioned service providers may be the most effective in helping the DACA-eligible through the process."

DACA has been moderately successful in effectively bringing immigrants into American society. While some areas have better infrastructure in place to aid immigrants, the data shows that the program has been very effective in a number of metro areas. 

While most Republicans oppose DACA and urge more deportations, it is unlikely that Democrats will budge on reforming the program, as it has allowed immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to stay in the country without fear of deportation. The program has allowed Democrats to draw support from Latino voters, who staunchly oppose conservative Republicans' anti-immigrant stance. 

Movement on immigration reform stalled this summer and is unlikely to see any progress until after November's midterm election.