Speaking on the May 2 broadcast of his 630 KHOW-AM show about so-called “anchor babies,” host Peter Boyles again suggested that the federal government seldom deports illegal immigrants who have U.S.-born children. Colorado Media Matters, however, has pointed out numerous examples of parents in the country illegally who were deported. Furthermore, Boyles' guest, conservative author and activist Jerome Corsi, misrepresented comments he made about “anchor babies” on a previous broadcast, stating that “the point I was trying to make was that when ... a parent is deported 'cause they're in here illegally, the government does not force them to leave the child here.” In fact, Corsi had asserted the “anchor baby” myth that illegal immigrants “are not being deported” if they have U.S.-born children.

Corsi introduced the “anchor baby” topic on the May 2 broadcast, claiming that during an earlier show, he stated only that the federal government allows illegal immigrant parents facing deportation to take their U.S.-born children with them.

From the May 2 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

CORSI: Yeah, last time that we were on the air we had a discussion about whether or not people were being deported that forced families to be separated. OK, in other words, parents who had anchor babies -- babies who were trying under the 14th Amendment -- the incorrect interpretation of the 14th Amendment -- to be considered U.S. citizens because they were born here.

BOYLES: Right.

CORSI: Now, the point I was trying to make was that when a, a parent is deported 'cause they're in here illegally, the government does not force them to leave the child here. And that's -- you know, the parent can take the child with them back to whatever country they want to be. When a, a parent -- even a citizen parent -- a mother commits a robbery, an armed robbery, the mother is gonna be sent to prison no matter how many children she has. The armed robbery is going to be considered an offense, and -- and what I'm saying is, that in these deportations, the mother can take the children with them.

BOYLES: Mmm-hmm.

CORSI: Now, the -- what the left wants to do is, they want to say, “No, no, no. These deportations are forcing families to separate.” Well, that's just not the case. And I want -- what I'm saying, I want to see the numbers, I want to see the statistics. I want to see the statistics where families were truly forced to separate. In other words, the government said the child must stay here and the parent must leave.

Contrary to Corsi's assertion, Colorado Media Matters noted that on Boyles' April 16 show, Corsi had supported Boyles' oft-stated contention that the illegal immigrant parents -- or mothers, as Boyles specified -- of U.S.-born children generally do not face deportation. On that broadcast Boyles had been discussing a guest editorial by Colorado Media Matters Editorial Director Bill Menezes that was published April 13 in The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. Referring to the editorial, Boyles complained, “But these guys write, 'On numerous broadcasts Boyles repeated the assertion that a U.S.-born child of illegal immigrants entitles the parents' -- which I always said just the mother -- 'to avoid deportation, despite the fact that federal law indicates otherwise.' So I'm being called a liar.”

Boyles then asked Corsi, "[W]hat's your take on that statement?" Corsi stated, “The reality is that families with children born in the United States, both mothers and fathers, are not being deported. But then, Peter, the people who make this criticism of you, why don't they show who is being deported at all?”

Later in the May 2 broadcast, Boyles again discussed a Los Angeles Times article about a family divided by deportation that appeared on the front page of the April 29 edition of the Post. As Colorado Media Matters noted, Boyles read from the article on his April 30 broadcast and yet baselessly asserted to his audience, “Now, you and I both know this doesn't happen.” Boyles suggested to Corsi that the circumstances described in the article were rare:

BOYLES: Yeah. But you and I both know that that's just lip service and it's just something that's said. If ever enacted -- and The Denver Post, our local -- one of our two morning papers -- had to go to the L.A. Times to find a story in San Diego of a woman who -- she and her husband came into the country illegally seeking health care for one of their children. Sadly, the kid dies. They stay and have more kids. Then they go to Larry the lawyer to go get -- to become legal, and they get caught in front of a judge. And I guess one or both of them gets sent home. Now, they are now this crying story. But short of that, Jerry, it's tough to find a story like that.

As Colorado Media Matters pointed out, the Times article reported Immigration and Custom Enforcement's policy and practice in deporting illegal immigrant parents of U.S.-born children:

San Diego -- U.S. immigration authorities have stepped up arrests and deportations across the nation in recent months, forcing an increasing number of adults who are in the country illegally to make a difficult decision: take their U.S.-born children with them or leave them behind.

When immigration agents encounter U.S.-born children, they usually leave them in the temporary custody of a relative or a friend. Occasionally, agents agree to postpone the parents' deportation if no one can be found. In extraordinary circumstances, agents contact local child protective services.

About 3 million U.S.-born kids have at least one illegal-immigrant parent.

Parents don't get special rights just because their children were born here, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. If a judge orders them to leave the country, they have to leave.

Similarly, The New York Times reported in a November 24, 2004, article that although there are no official statistics on the breakup of families through deportation, the practice is widespread:

No one keeps track of exactly how many American children were left behind by the record 186,000 noncitizens expelled from the United States last year, or the 887,000 others required to make a “voluntary departure.” But immigration experts say there are tens of thousands of children every year who lose a parent to deportation. As the debate over immigration policy heats up, such broken families are troubling people on all sides, and challenging schools and mental health clinics in immigrant neighborhoods.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security say they are simply enforcing laws adopted in 1996, which all but eliminated the discretion of immigration officers to consider family ties before enforcing an old order of removal.

“There are millions of people who are illegally in the United States, and it's unfortunate, when they're caught, seeing a family split up,” said William Strassberger, a spokesman for federal immigration services. “But the person has to be answerable for their actions.”

Federal officials said they leave time for parents to make arrangements for their children, and refer them to a social service agency if necessary. Many parents arrange to leave American-born children with relatives or friends; others, especially those who have no one to assume responsibility for a child, take the children along when they are expelled.

“People refer to that as a Sophie's choice situation,” he said. “Where the child is going to be is left up to the parent.”

Colorado Media Matters has noted other reports of U.S.-born children left behind after their foreign-born mothers were deported, including a July 15, 2006, National Journal article (accessed through the Nexis database) which noted that Carolina Sulecio-Hernandez was deported to Guatemala from Richmond, Virginia, leaving her 3-year-old son Sammy with her husband. She was brought to the United States by her mother as a child. When she went to immigration enforcement seeking to become a legal U.S. citizen, “Immigration enforcement agents met them [Sulecio-Hernandez and her husband] there, took Sulecio-Hernandez into custody, and locked her up in a jail in Hampton, Va. It turned out she had an outstanding deportation order against her” from when she was 12 years old and her mother brought her back from Canada.