New Obama Directive Aims To Stop Detention of Undocumented Parents with Minor Children Elizabeth Llorente - Fox News Latino
go to original August 27, 2013

Marcus Garcia, 2, protests with family members during an immigration reform demonstration in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), office on June 13, 2013 in Newark, New Jersey. (Getty Images)

A new little-noticed directive by the Obama administration calls on immigration authorities to exercise discretion when dealing with undocumented immigrants who have minor children.

The directive, issued Friday evening, urges authorities to “exercise such discretion as early in the case or proceeding as possible.”

The new policy is aimed at addressing the problem of children falling through the cracks when their primary caregivers are detained and deported.

In 2011, roughly 5,100 U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants who were detained or deported were living in foster care, according to an analysis by the Applied Research Center. That study estimated that 15,000 more children would end up in foster care by 2016 if high numbers of detention and deportation continued under the Obama administration.

Immigration experts say about 200,000 parents of children who are U.S. citizens were deported between 2010 and 2012.

Immigrant rights advocates laud the new directive, though many said it falls short of resolving the larger issue of a broken immigration system that ends up separating families.

Read the rest at Fox News Latino

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