Last week, every single Senate Democrat signed an obtuse piece of legislation called the “Keep Families Together Act” that would release any person who illegally crosses the border with a child in tow.

In other words, every single Senate Democrat signed a piece of legislation that quite literally encourages child trafficking.

Unfortunately – and likely completely unbeknownst to open-border liberals – child trafficking is a tactic that violent criminals have used for years to illegally enter the United States. Here are five instances where MS-13 gang members smuggled children across the border in an effort to be released into the United States – and then went on to commit violent crimes. (RELATED: 11 MS-13 Members Charged In Horrific Kidnappings, Deaths Of Two Teens).

September 2016: MS-13 gang member released as “unaccompanied minor” accused of murder in New York

On December 7, 2013, Border Patrol apprehended an unaccompanied alien child (UAC). He was given a Notice to Appear and released into the interior of the United States. In September 2016, he was one of more than a dozen MS-13 gang members involved in the murder of two teenage girls in Long Island, N.Y.

July 2017: MS-13 gang member released as “unaccompanied minor” lands on Texas most wanted list

On December 31, 2014, Border Patrol apprehended a UAC. He was given a Notice to Appear and released into the interior of the United States. In July 2017, he was a known MS-13 gang member and was listed on the State of Texas’s ten most wanted fugitives list by the Texas State Department of Public Safety. He was arrested in August 2017 near Arlington, Virginia and is currently awaiting trial for two Houston-area murders.

November 2017: “Unaccompanied minor” arrested in MS-13 gang murder in Maryland

On May 13, 2015, Border Patrol apprehended a UAC. He was given a Notice to Appear and released into the interior of the United States. In November 2017, he was arrested in connection to an MS-13 related murder of a man who was stabbed over 100 times and decapitated near a Maryland park.

March 2018: Known MS-13 member with an active arrest warrant for terrorist ties tries to use son to illegally enter the U.S.

On March 22, 2018, Border Patrol apprehended a known MS-13 female gang member who arrived at the border with her minor son claiming credible fear. She had an active arrest warrant for known association with a terrorist organization issued by the Justice of the Peace of Acajutla, El Salvador, Sonsonate on December 13, 2016. She is currently in custody pending a hearing scheduled for June 26, 2018. Her son remains in ORR custody.

June 2018: Previously deported convicted illegal alien rapist tries to use daughter to re-enter the U.S.

On June 15, 2018, Border Patrol apprehended an adult male from El Salvador – the birth country of MS-13 – who had previously been deported in 2009. He had been charged and convicted of rape in the U.S. and was sentenced to 15 years in prison with five years suspended. He was accompanied by his 7-year-old daughter. Due to his criminal history, the child was considered a UAC and processed accordingly.

A word about these five cases: the first three “unaccompanied minors” were released into the interior of the United States under the Obama administration’s lax border policy. They then all went on to commit murder. The last two, on the other hand, attempted to enter the country under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, and have therefore been detained at the border.

What’s more important: keeping illegal children together with their illegal criminal parents, or the safety of American citizens? It’s a trick question because the two need not be mutually exclusive, as Sen. Tom Cotton pointed out.

The practice of separating children from their parents at the border is cruel. However, illegals should not be rewarded for breaking the law, period. Unfortunately, the “Keep Families Together Act” not only rewards criminal behavior, it encourages the abuse of children.