John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has released a memo that seeks to change the way his agency handles its controversial program, Secure Communities. The program takes the fingerprints of anyone booked into a county or local detention facility and runs them against a federal database to determine if the detainee is an illegal alien or not. If it is found that they are an illegal immigrant, ICE puts a hold on them and generally has them deported. The program has received much scrutiny due to the fact that ICE said it would only focus its deportation efforts on violent criminals but has, in fact deported thousands of non-criminals and offenders guilty of misdemeanors and traffic violations.

The memo seeks to officially prioritize who should be deported. Morton listed many considerations that should be taken into account when deportations are adjudicated such as whether or not the illegal alien has family in the U.S., if they are in good standing with their community, if they are married to a U.S. citizen or legal resident, if they are in the midst of a civil rights lawsuit, if they are a minor or a senior, if they have been in the U.S. since childhood, if they are a college student, and many other factors. The memo has brought hope to many sectors of U.S. society. Illegal immigrants who, for example, were brought to the U.S. illegally as small children, do not speak the language of their home country, and are established in the U.S. hope their deportation orders can be blocked. Gay couples where one is a U.S. citizen and the other is not are hoping that they will not face deportation as, since the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 states that, even if they are married in a state where gay marriage is legal, the federal government will not recognize it for immigration purposes.

Already, some undocumented immigrants have had their deportation postponed as a result of the memo. An Indian college student at UC Davis in California that has been in the U.S. since the age of 6 was able to convince ICE officials that the contents of the memo applied to her for many reasons—she had been brought to the U.S. as a child, was a college student, and had good standing in her community. Also, some illegal immigrants who were witnesses to or victims of crimes have been allowed to stay in the country as a result of the memo.

Many ICE agents themselves are protesting the memo. The union representing immigration enforcement agents, the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, said that the memo is a "law enforcement nightmare” and has accused the Obama administration of getting in the way of these agents doing their jobs—enforcing immigration law. However, ICE spokesperson, Gillian Christensen said the memo was released because ICE is allotted a fixed amount of money for deportations and removing violent criminals is their chance to use it most effectively. They certainly don’t have the funds to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants in the country.