Professor Barbara Hines, Immigration Law Clinical Professor at the University of Texas School of Law and Co-Counsel in 2006 litigation against the T. Don Hutto family detention center, explains why the current Department of Homeland Security policy of detaining families is a repeat of our past mistakes and a lack of compassion for families fleeing violence, crime, gangs and poverty.

Late Thursday, the Associated Press reported that President Obama has directed Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security, to review the agency's deportation policy to operate "more humanely within the confines of the law." Critics, including a spokesman from the office of House Speaker John Boehner, have indicated that until immigration laws are reformed through the democratic process, the executive branch has a duty to enforce the laws as they are written. Supporters of immigration reform were encouraged by the President's showing of compassion toward the families of those facing deportation.