U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions can, and should, immediately stop the zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration that is creating a humanitarian nightmare along our border that authorities aren’t prepared to handle.

I served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas for seven years until 2017, and the current horror of separating mothers from their children is in sharp contrast to the previous policy of deporting the family without prosecuting the mothers for illegal entry. Both the recent turn-away policy and the family separation policy are legal . One option is moral; the other is not.

Our government must make the moral choice.

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The Southern District of Texas encompasses all of the Houston metropolitan area, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo, and handles more criminal immigration cases than any other in the United States. Cases in which the defendant had a prior criminal record were prioritized. All cases of illegal entry were prosecuted.

It was the same as today, with one exception: Families with small children who illegally entered the country were detained together pending removal, not prosecution, to ensure that they would not be inhumanely separated.

The enforcement of illegal immigration is within the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Border Patrol and the Customs and Border Protection. However, the Department of Justice, led by the attorney general, sets prosecution priorities for all the U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country.

Sessions’ zero-tolerance policy is intended to serve as a deterrent to all those who contemplate illegally entering our country. But it comes with a significant, unnecessary consequence: separating families. That consequence can be immediately ameliorated by amending the policy: Sessions can grant prosecutorial discretion to the local U.S. attorneys, which would allow them to make exceptions regarding families. Splitting up parents and children is too harsh a penalty for what is commonly a misdemeanor offense.

This is about more than presidential promises or policy preferences.

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The oath of office for all individuals who enter federal service, both civil and military, states in part to “...support and defend the Constitution of the United States...” As U.S. attorneys, we have a duty to represent the interest of the United States — not any one individual. All persons who come before the bar of justice are to be treated fairly and with human dignity. Laws are enforced to their fullest extent, but in every case, the facts are treated uniquely to ensure that justice is done. Zero tolerance ignores the uniqueness of each case.

Yes, the Department of Justice is an executive department under the White House, but it is nevertheless based on the ideal of justice. All who work at the department share this ideal. Justice can be done in each case by reviewing the evidence and determining its proper disposition.

To charge or not to charge? To indict or not to indict? To seek a lenient or a harsh sentence?

As a prosecutor for more than 40 years, including an appointment to fill an unexpired term as Harris County district attorney, I have found that zero tolerance policies prevent the system from truly using the scales of justice. These policies can have consequences of inhumane treatment — such as the separation of families that we’re seeing today.

This zero tolerance must be brought to an end. Attorney General Sessions can make it happen. .

Magidson formerly served as the Houston-based U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas and as the Harris County District Attorney.