On Aug. 23, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency issued a new policy directive directing all ICE personnel to “ensure that the agency’s immigration enforcement activities do not unnecessarily disrupt the parental rights” of illegal immigrant parents or guardians of minors. The memo encourages ICE agents to exercise “prosecutorial discretion” in favor of parents “at any stage of an enforcement proceeding” but leniency in favor of parents is “preferable … as early in the case or proceeding as possible.”
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In other words, as long as an illegal immigrant can show they have a child in the United States, they can stay.

“President Obama has once again abused his authority and unilaterally refused to enforce our current immigration laws by directing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to stop removing broad categories of unlawful immigrants,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said in a statement August 24. “The primary reason why our immigration system is broken today is because our immigration laws have largely been ignored by past and present administrations. It’s imperative that we prevent this from happening again by taking away the enforcement ‘on/off’ switch from the president.”