"A better system would allow us to keep families together": Head of Border Patrol

Border Patrol officers have faced a "huge challenge" over the last two weeks, according to Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, who has promised to separate families illegally crossing the Southwest border.

When asked when he thought it was a mistake to separate the families, McAleenan replied, "I say that a better system would allow us to keep the families together. effectively. "

But the current dialogue related to illegal immigration misses the major problem: there is a crisis of violence in Central America that has propelled a "wave of families and children" trying to sneak into the United States through South Texas in particular. .

David J. Phillip / AP

"It's not about what's happening at the border," McAleenan told ABC News after meeting with border officials in McAllen, Texas. "It's about what happens to those families that led them to make the decision in Central America to try [and get to the United States]. They are in the hands of Mexican cartels, dangerous organizations, and then the dangers of crossing. This piece has lost interest in the current dialogue. "

Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new "zero tolerance" policy that every adult caught crossing the border illegally would be sent to justice. Because children can not accompany their parents to the justice system, it means that children are separated from their families.

Images of seated and sleeping migrants behind chain-link fences inside CBP's facilities, as well as poignant stories of separation, sparked a national outcry. CBP exploits what McAleenan has described as "very temporary" detention facilities, where migrants are detained while being identified, interrogated and treated.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump issued a decree ordering federal authorities to keep migrant families, even after being transferred from CBP's remand facilities to the health and social services guard or ICE.

In light of the Order, CBP has – at least for the time being – stopped sending family members away for prosecution.

"The primary guide is the welfare of the child," while enforcing the law, said McAleenan.

The CRP plays a key role in ensuring that the approximately 2,000 children currently detained by the HHS can be reunited with their families.

"It is very important at the beginning to treat them with care and to seize their file in our electronic systems … so that if they have a parent, even if the stay in our establishment lasts a short time, they can to be connected and "We have this initial process to make sure the data is solid, so that our ICE and HHS partners know who the parents are and how they are related," said the Commissioner.

Nevertheless, men, women and unaccompanied minors are still separated within CBP facilities.

"What we need to do is we need to protect them," McAleenan said. "We can not have certain groups of people with others – adult men with teenage girls."

On Monday morning, ABC News visited the central CBP processing center in McAllen, where around 1,300 migrants are currently being held.

McAleenan suggested that CBP work with the resources it has.

"That's the funding we have," he said. "It's a safe installation – you can actually see what's going on through seamless fencing."

McAleenan challenged numerous reports alleging inhuman treatment, including reports that children would be abducted from their parents while parents showered or in court.

"We have a neat script for our agents, there is a tear sheet that is given to each parent, and the intention was to make very clear what is going on," according to McAleenan. "These stories of subterfuge, of people telling false stories to get people to relax, it was not happening to my knowledge."

During a tour in McAllen's facilities on Thursday, ABC News saw no child crying – some kids were watching cartoons on a big TV. In fact, the large, warehouse-like facility was relatively quiet, and the only constant noise was the rustling of the Mylar blankets that the inmates used for the heat as they rested on large areas.

When kids cry in facilities, "it's really difficult," McAleenan said. "To see families and children, and what they are going through to get here, they are putting themselves in the hands of the most violent criminal organizations in the Western Hemisphere."

He said that he hoped the current "spotlight" on border issues "focus attention" on what is happening in Central America and "can be changed into a national conversation that helps us to solve this." problem". [immigration-related] problem."

Brandon Chase of ABC News contributed to this story.