Several readers have written to The Times to express their concern with our use of the phrase “catch and release” in our recent coverage of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

“ ‘Catch and release’ is a sport fishing term for the practice of catching fish and releasing them, alive, back into the water,” Tim Pierce from Berlin, Mass., wrote in a letter to the editor on Wednesday. “The Trump administration uses it as part of a strategy to dehumanize immigrants. The Times must not be complicit in this process of dehumanization, and must reject this biased term.”

We asked our deputy national editor Kim Murphy to respond.

The phrase “catch and release” has been used off-and-on to describe immigration policy since at least the administration of George W. Bush.

President Trump has made it a favorite term for what he considers the government’s lack of vigilance in detaining migrants who cross the border illegally. For too long, he argues, the government has allowed migrants in such cases to be released from detention and simply show up for their immigration hearings in order to remain, possibly for years, in the United States. Such a policy, he believes, encourages more migrant families to embark on dangerous journeys, persuaded by precedent that freedom waits at the other end.