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Natividad Gonzalez (C) of Clanton, Ala., and other immigration reform activists holds signs and Badges of Courage during a March 11, 2014 news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Barack Obamas surprise announcement last week that his administration would change its deportation policy to become more humane shows how the immigration battle has narrowed after months of congressional deadlock.

As recently as last year, immigrant rights activists, along with an unusually broad coalition of business, labor and religious groups, were united in their demand that Congress pass a sweeping bill to both remove the threat of deportation from many of the 11 million people here illegally and eventually make them citizens. But now activists first just want to stop deportations.

They have pressured Obama to limit the number of people sent back overseas, which led to his administrations announcement Thursday of a review of deportation policies after a meeting with the Hispanic Congressional Caucus. Activists also are pushing state legislatures to end participation in a program to help federal immigration authorities deport people and chaining themselves across entrances to local jails or immigration detention centers.

We need relief and we need it soon, said Reyna Montoya, 23, of Phoenix, whose father is fighting deportation and who co-wrote an open letter with dozens of other young activists urging immigrant rights groups to stand down on the citizenship issue. People who are directly affected just want peace. Later on theyll worry about becoming citizens.

Immigrant rights groups still want legislation to grant citizenship for many who are in the U.S. without legal permission. But the prioritization of deportation relief shows the desperation felt by immigrant communities as deportations have continued, even as the president and many in Congress say they support changing the law to allow some of those people to stay in the U.S.

It also represents the possible splintering of the diverse coalition that long sought a single remedy to the nations immigration problems: one sweeping bill to expand citizenship. And the more aggressive, confrontational tactics also raise the risk of a public backlash.

One picture of a cop with a bloody nose and its all over for these people, Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors greater restrictions on immigration, said of the activists.

The change comes after many expected Congress to pass a sweeping immigration overhaul last year. Republicans have been torn between some in their base who want to step up deportations and others alarmed at how Hispanics, Asians and other fast-growing communities are increasingly leaning Democratic.

The Senate in June passed a bipartisan bill to legalize, and eventually grant citizenship to, many of the 11 million people in the U.S. illegally. But the bill died in the Republican-controlled House. Republican leaders there floated a proposal that could stop short of citizenship for many people here illegally. But Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, acknowledged it stood little chance of passing.

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Immigration activists make stopping deportations main priority