On August 19, 2011, the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) of the American Immigration Council released a statement in response to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutorial discretion memorandum and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano’s announcement that the Obama administration would be reviewing 300,000 cases currently in removal proceedings. The goal of this review is to determine which cases should be classified as low priority and administratively closed. As one of the factors in classifying a case as low priority is the presence of family relationships and community ties, the administration has stated that this could affect gay and lesbian bi-national couples. For more information, read the IPC statement.