Still is not illegal...IF you present yourself at the border to an agent and ask to apply for refugee status. That's not what is happening here, as I'm sure you know unless you live under a rock. These people are crossing the border illegally, and trying to avoid authorities. When they are captured, they then cry "Refugee" as they have been coached. Those adults are processed, which takes time and includes an identification process which takes a long time in many cases because they lie about never being here before illegally. During that process, the small minority, less than 18% who have their own children with them are separated because they are in fact breaking the law and must be sent back. Our government is not so heartless as to house those children with other adults or leave them wandering the desert, so,they are kept with only other children to protect them.

Now if you come to the border to apply for asylum, you are given forms to file, and then told to wait on the other side of the border for the investigation and a hearing....with your children.

This was all explained to me by a BP agent escorting a prisoner to Newark for deportation. Every week now same thing. People from India are coming across the southern border. Those are the ones they catch, who can't pass themselves as Hispanic.

Btw, many of the girls they find as young as 11 have birth control pills given them by their parents when they sent them across with a group and a coyote, because so many are raped south of the border by the coyotes...who are sometimes caught as well.

The president has really stepped on his crank when he caved. There are just not enough facilities to house families securely, as a unit while protecting the kids from other adult detainees.
CBP is in a tizzy about what to do now.