The Trump Administration refuses to ease its policy of cruelty towards unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S. Border with Mexico. Tal Kopan of the San Francisco Chronical reports that the number of immigrant children being held in U.S. custody is now over 14,000 - an all-time high. The reasons? Myriad and complex, all of them xenophobic and cruel.

One could consider it simple math, in that the pace of immigration has not slowed. The rate at which unaccompanied minors arrive at the border is the same. Yet they are being held IN U.S. custody for much longer than previous administrations held them before releasing them to "suitable adults" here in this country. Why are we holding them for longer?

This administration has begun to arrest people who come to claim the children — often who are family members — if they themselves are undocumented. This was not done in previous administrations, because welfare of the children was placed above the desire to punish people who were here without documentation.

In THIS administration, though, cruelty and punishment supersede all. Screw the kids, who are only here because their parents are terrified for their children's safety in their home country. Screw the kids who are already traumatized by an arduous and nightmarish weeks-long journey to the border. Screw the kids who miss their mommies and may find comfort with cousins and aunts who speak their language and are allowed to hug them.

Let the children stand in lines to pour water over their heads to cool themselves off instead of taking showers. Let them sleep in tents with 20 other strangers with adults who are not permitted to touch them or offer comfort. Let them languish with no school or services to speak of, wondering when they'll see their parents again — if they'll see their parents again —because Trump is so determined to punish them because their parents wanted them to not be murdered by gangs or die from starvation. Because Trump is determined to punish their family here in the U.S. because they don't have documentation that is so difficult to get in the first place.

Yeah, that's all the kids' fault. All 14,000 of them. And the court scene below is how they should be punished.