Woman twice deported from US got a reprieve under new deportation guidelines

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"Amid new guidelines, Va. woman’s deportation case comes down to the last minute": This article in today's Post profiles the undocumented Guatemalan immigrant Paula Godoy, a mother of three living in Richmond, Va. Now http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-plans-to-make-it-a-priority-to-deport-illegal-immigrants-who-are-convicted-criminals/2011/08/18/gIQAxKHxNJ_story.html|while the Obama admin's new guidelines> for deporting illegals puts first priority for those convicted of other non-immigration-related crimes, unfortunately Godoy apparently had entered the US illegally...TWICE!

She had gone through four lawyers and $10,000 since November of 2009, when a police officer pulled her over for driving with a suspended license and discovered she had entered the country twice without documentation.

Godoy finally had built the life she wanted for her family since she crossed the border in 2000, paying a smuggler $6,000 and spending two months traveling on buses and foot trails before finally entering the United States through Texas. Her siblings and cousins lived nearby in Richmond.

Two of Godoy's three children are US citizens by birth here. Since she had family living in the US, couldn't they have petitioned for legal residency? Or maybe they aren't legal residents, and the Post omitted that? I'm not like those knee-jerk conservatives who will cry "she's leeching off welfare and dropping anchor babies and broke the law...DEPORT!" but I think that only if Godoy had NO previous deportations I'd be more willing to oppose deporting her. The last section of the article indicated: "She had been given six more months in the United States thanks to the new guidelines" but "would possibly need to file for another Stay of Removal request soon." Do realize that is a class E felony if the person who did so already had prior deportations, thus putting a felony on Godoy's record. America really needs immigration reform and border security improvements, but this story makes the Obama admin's earlier actions look bad.