The influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the US border has been rightly described as a humanitarian crisis. Instead of locking those children up where they are vulnerable to abuse, please declare them to be refugees and additionally set up a way for them to be placed in foster homes. Direct Border Patrol to release them to local child welfare agencies and organizations that have the means and will to ensure their safety and well-being.
This is a humanitarian crisis, but it is also a moral crisis. What the United States does with these vulnerable human beings who have come here seeking safety will speak to who we are as a country and a people. We are better than this.