It's no secret that the Obama administration is seeing much lower enrollment numbers than what was hoped for. This is especially true in the area of Hispanic enrollment.

While the poor performance and lack of features on the Spanish-language version of the Web site was a source of blame preliminarily, there is a new culprit under suspicion for keeping the Hispanic total low: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

It seems that many Hispanics who live in mixed-status families (where some members are legal and others are not) might be holding back from enrollment out of fear that the information retrieved through the health program might be used to identify, find and/or deport undocumented immigrants. This is despite assurances from authorities that this is not a practice of ICE.

"That's a big fear and something that the campaign is trying to address," said "Get Covered" campaign manager Hilda Martinez to the National Journal. "These families are just very fearful whether it's true or not. We don't have any reason to doubt the administration, but there's this fear in the community that isn't just going to go away with a letter."

But records recently released show that deportations have fallen in 2013, and ICE is adamant that their record shows restraint in prosecutions.

ICE released figures demonstrating that 82 percent of the 133,551 people who had been apprehended from the interior of the country had been previously convicted of a criminal offense. According to ICE, the remaining 235,093 deported were caught in the act of attempting to enter the country illegally and that nearly 60 percent of the people deported were guilty of some offense.

"These results clearly demonstrate that ICE is enforcing our nation's laws in a smart and effective way," acting ICE Director John Sandweg said in a conference call according to USA Today. "We will continue our efforts to focus on the removal of criminals and recent border crossers, promoting public safety, border security and the integrity of the immigration system."