The age old saying "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..." was declared without a clear understanding of how those new arrivals would be taken care of (i.e. where they would live, how they would find work, etc.,). It's a great saying, but the modern U.S. does not appear to know how to, or even want to care for the people it is letting in. They want to say they're keeping their word but they don't truly want to, so they send the parents off while imprisoning the children, since it would be inhumane to cast them off too.

But is it not also inhumane to imprison children? These children are the definition of a stateless people: they have no legal home. They're also wards of the state: they have no means to support themselves. We may even go as far as to say they are kidnapping victims, but without a purpose: the U.S. is holding them, but will not offer a way for their parents to retrieve them, or demand any payment for releasing them. It's like they're being held for ransom with no ransom.