Although the fight for comprehensive immigration reform legislation is currently stalled in Congress, the effort to stop mass immigrant deportation seems to be improving.

A new analysis of court data reveals that a growing number of immigrants facing deportation are now winning their cases in immigration court, helping undocumented residents avoid deportation at the highest success rate in more than 20 years, the Associated Press reports.

Nearly half of immigrants facing deportation have won their cases in the last year, according to the report published by the Transactional Records Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University Thursday. Since 2009, the federal government has been losing more deportation cases each year.

However, the TRAC report does not mention how many deportation cases Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which provides the government with legal representation in immigration courts, successfully appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

In 2013, the government won about 52 percent of cases, but since the start of the 2014 budget year in October, immigration judges ruled in favor of immigrants in about half of the 42,816 cases heard, TRAC reported. 

Immigrants have recently found the most success in states like California, New York and Oregon, while judges in Georgia, Louisiana and Utah tend to side more often with the government, according to TRAC.

"ICE's enforcement strategies and policies are designed to prioritize its resources on public safety, national security and border security threats," said ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen. "ICE continues to focus on sensible, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens and those apprehended at the border while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States."

Although President Obama has deported a record-breaking 1.9 million immigrants during his tenure, far exceeding any other U.S. president, in recent years his administration has effectuated policy orders directing immigration authorities to exercise discretion when determining which undocumented immigrants should be deported. Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also said discretion should be used for immigrants who didn't pose a threat to national security or public safety.

Furthermore, in 2012 Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that allows tens of thousands of young, unauthorized immigrants to apply to stay in the country for up to two years and get a work permit.