At least 2,342 child migrants have been separated from their parents at the U.S. border in one month, a shocking statistic that has generated nearly nonstop media coverage in recent days. Since announcing a “zero tolerance” policy for illegal immigration in May, the Trump administration has alternated between a series of contradictory explanations for its family separation policy, which culminated in a raucous White House briefing Monday where Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen denied that children were being treated “inhumanely,” despite widespread reports of detainees being left in metal cages at Border Patrol facilities in Texas.