Sen. Chris Coons Christopher (Chris) Andrew CoonsMurkowski: Supreme Court nominee should not be taken up before election Battle lines drawn on precedent in Supreme Court fight Sunday shows - Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death dominates MORE (D-Del.) on Sunday blasted the Trump administration’s handling of immigration, accusing the White House of using “cruelty to children” to affect policy changes.

“We've got an administration that has intentionally used cruelty to children as a tool of immigration policy,” Coons said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” citing reports of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions at detention facilities.

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“There are ways in which the administration has demonstrably failed in its moral responsibility to provide minimally reasonable care for children in their custody,” he added.

Coons also hit acting United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli, the previous guest on the show, for blaming the conditions on “loopholes” in asylum law.

“These aren’t loopholes, these are core features of American law,” he told CBS’s Margaret Brennan.

Coons said Congress is willing to address immigration issues, noting ongoing bipartisan efforts by Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Durbin Richard (Dick) Joseph DurbinThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by Facebook - Trump previews SCOTUS nominee as 'totally brilliant' Feinstein 'surprised and taken aback' by suggestion she's not up for Supreme Court fight Grand jury charges no officers in Breonna Taylor death MORE (D-Ill.), but said President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE had complicated the process by repeatedly reversing himself on proposals he appeared to support after receiving criticism from the right.

“The challenge [for Congress] is the ways in which President Trump initially embraces and then abruptly reverses himself and opposes those bipartisan proposals that have been brought to him,” Coons said.

“The president just needs to be clear about what he’s willing to embrace” and secure majority support from congressional Republicans as well, Coons added.