Sen. Jeff Merkley Jeffrey (Jeff) Alan MerkleyThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Trump, Biden renew push for Latino support Sunday shows - Trump team defends coronavirus response Oregon senator says Trump's blame on 'forest management' for wildfires is 'just a big and devastating lie' MORE (D-Ore.) accused the Trump administration on Friday of designing federal immigration policy with the intent of "traumatizing" children of migrant parents who come to the U.S. seeking asylum.

In an interview Friday morning with CNN's "New Day," Merkley said that the Trump administration was failing to properly care for asylum applicants by detaining them instead of releasing families with children into the U.S.

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"You're doing something that's totally unnecessary, it's designed to traumatize these kids to send a message to the world: 'Do not, if you're fleeing persecution, come to the United States,' " Merkley said. "

The Oregon senator criticized the Trump administration during the interview for detaining families in detention facilities rather than allow the use of the Family Case Management System, a pilot program shuttered by the Trump administration that assigned a caseworker to asylum applicants released into the U.S.

Immigration activists have touted the program's success rate when it comes to asylum applicants showing up for hearings.

"It's a program that the Inspector General of Homeland Security said that 100 percent of the families showed up for their hearings," Merkley told CNN.

"We had a program that worked. The United States government, President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE, shut it down," he added.

The Trump administration’s border policy is “designed to traumatize these kids in order to send a message to the world,” @SenJeffMerkley says after a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl died in Border Patrol custody. https://t.co/CmqFYD7O2m pic.twitter.com/fxeU9vfcyD — New Day (@NewDay) December 14, 2018

Merkley's comments come as the senator is leading a delegation to the border to investigate conditions at child detention facilities operated to house migrants the Trump administration says crossed the border illegally.

His visit comes as Customs and Border Patrol announced late Thursday that a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl had died from dehydration and shock while in U.S. custody.

“Our sincerest condolences go out to the family of the child,” CBP spokesman Andrew Meehan said Thursday.

“Border Patrol agents took every possible step to save the child’s life under the most trying of circumstances,” Meehan said. “As fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, we empathize with the loss of any child.”