As President Obama’s top second term legislative priority, citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States, slowly dies from lack of momentum in Congress, Obama is expanding his administrative amnesty programs, further weakening the case for conservatives to trust him on the issue.

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.”