Children separated from families get better care than a lot of American kids do: Sessions The attorney general made the comments in an op-ed responding to crtitics.

In a new op-ed in USA Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions says that children who have been separated from their families have better care than American kids.

"And these children are well cared for. In fact, they get better care than a lot of American kids do," he wrote in USA Today. "They are provided plenty of food, education in their language, health and dental care, and transported to their destination city — all at taxpayer expense," he continued.

The Sessions op-ed came out before President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would sign an executive order that would keep immigrant families together.

Sessions said children would not be put in jail and that Health and Human Services, the department that is responsible for caring for the children and that the department was spending almost a billion dollars on care.

The Attorney General said that a loophole was discovered that if people cross the border illegally with children they will not be prosecuted. This is what most people know as "catch and release."

President Trump in April signed a memo to end "catch and release."

Sessions reiterated a talking point he's used before- citing that the need for the policy based on the abuse that the kids get from gangs like MS -13.

"Many unaccompanied children have been abused by smugglers or recruited by criminal gangs such as MS-13. There is nothing humane about encouraging human trafficking — but that is what open borders policies do. Everything the Trump administration is doing is helping put traffickers out of business."

He also said that people who have a "genuine asylum claim" they can make their claim legally and remain with their children.

Ultimately, Sessions wrote, it isn't the priority of the administration to separate families. He noted that those who want to come into the United States can do it legally.

"We do not want to separate parents from their children. What we want is a safe, lawful system of immigration that would end this question altogether. Sessions wrote. "We want to build a wall to prevent illegal entry. Congress could make that happen quickly — and they should."