Cruel and unusual

The Trump administration is facing an increasing amount of political blowback from its reckless new immigration policy that has led to a dramatic increase in separations of migrant children from their parents at the southern border.

So it’s trying to claim that the responsibility lies with anyone but the Trump administration.

Department of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has blamed Congress.

“Instead of criticizing those of us who uphold our oaths by enforcing the laws Congress drafted, work with us to change them,” Nielsen said Monday on Twitter.

Although Republicans have the majority in both houses of Congress, President Trump has blamed Democrats for his own policy.

“The Democrats have to change their law,” Trump said on June 15, in remarks to reporters.

Finally, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions — who announced the new policy in California last month — has blamed the parents themselves.

“There’s only one way to stop this and that is for people to stop smuggling children,” Sessions told the National Sheriffs’ Association. “Stop crossing the border illegally with your children.”

All of this rhetoric is false.

The responsibility for this cruel and inhumane policy lies squarely with the Trump administration.

President Trump could end it with a single phone call. So far, he has not.

The question for Congress is whether or not it wants to enter the midtermelection season on this platform of racial division and gratuitous cruelty.

Already, the furor over family separation has upended the House of Representatives’ plan to vote on two immigration bills this week. Now, House Republicans are scrambling to see if they can pass a narrower fix to forbid the practice of ripping children away from their parents.

Meanwhile, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been steadily working to build support for her bill to outlaw family separations. She currently has 49 co-sponsors, mostly Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he favors a narrow fix and expects one to pass late this week.

Congress will need to contain President Trump, who wants an end to family separation only if he can also get funding for a border wall. But there can be no negotiating with children’s lives. This policy must end, and it must end now.