I understand that the Trump administration does not distinguish between migrants seeking to enter the US to work and eventually apply for citizenship and migrants on the run from violence who seek to claim the right to political asylum.

The law does make that distinction. Most pleas for political asylum are denied….unless the migrants are represented by counsel, in which case most pleas for asylum are granted. Mr. Trump is opposed to hiring the numbers of immigration judges it would take to clear the backlog or to reassign administrative law judges from other agencies not facing life and death emergencies.

When this is the lay of the land, it is unfair to call these people criminals but even if they were criminals where is the morality in treating their children badly? We have been better than this. I can only hope we are still better than this.