What happens when immigrants enter the United States illegally, settle down, have families, and then are suddenly deported? The result is a broken family, with children wondering what has happened to their parents and how they will survive without them. Despite President Obama’s promise that his administration would focus on removing only criminals, not breaking up families even if a parent is here illegally, almost 45,000 parents have been deported within the first half of this year. Many of these deportations have not been of criminals, but rather people who have just been caught in the act of illegally living in this country.

Sentiments are clearly mixed on this issue. On one hand, there is the argument that the deportation of such people, and the inevitable break-up of their families is heart-wrenching and seemingly wrong. There is also the argument that such people have taken a reckless gamble with their families, having illegally entered the country knowing that they could be deported at any time. Likewise, another argument, as proffered by Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, is that to not deport such illegal immigrants is to give them the “ultimate bonus package, and creates an incentive for others to do the same thing.”

Should Obama stick to his original plan and only deport criminals? Or should all illegal immigrants be deported, regardless of their newly developed lives in the United States?