Deportations: New ICE Policy Tries to Limit the Breaking Up of Immigrant Families

Posted Monday, August 26, 2013, at 11:45 a.m. ET

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Friday a new directive on  deportations of undocumented immigrants. The new policy is aimed at safeguarding parents and ensuring that they are not separated from their children.

The announcement comes in the wake of widespread protests by advocacy groups, young undocumented immigrants and politicians against one of the most controversial aspects of the Obama administration immigration policy.

As New York Times' Julia Preston reports, the administration is walking a fine line here. "They want to avoid arrests or deportations of advocates that could create a confrontation between the White House and groups mobilizing support for overhaul legislation that Mr. Obama supports," she says. But at the same time, "officials are also trying to persuade skeptical Republicans that the administration is vigorously enforcing immigration law."

National Immigration Law Center Executive Director Marielena Hincapié called the new policy a welcome and necessary change, but warned that it only addresses the symptoms of what we all know to be a deeply broken immigration system. "Today, thousands of children are growing up with the psychological trauma of having lost a parent to deportation," she told NBCLatino's Jacquellena Carrero. “This new directive should underscore the need for all those in Washington to move quickly to create an immigration system that upholds our most dearly-held family values.”

Read more at NBC Latino.