The nation has been consumed in the debate and subsequent outrage by an increase in children being detained separately from their families after crossing the U.S. border illegally under a new zero-tolerance policy in conjunction with laws put in place under previous presidents’ administrations.

According to an Associated Press report on Wednesday, parents who surrender at U.S. ports of entry have on occasion been separated from their children with no formal explanation since long before the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy, said Dan Kowalski, editor of Bender’s Immigration Bulletin, a national journal focused on immigration cases and law. He believes it’s because of a lack of training, leadership and standard operating procedures that allows border agents to make up rules as they go.

While the executive order released by President Donald Trump on Wednesday changes no laws nor does it create new ones, many Utahns will be relieved nonetheless that the Trump administration has heard the demands of bipartisan leaders, religious organizations and the overwhelming will of the American people.

“It is also the policy of this Administration to maintain family unity, including by detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources,” the executive order reads. “It is unfortunate that Congress’s failure to act and court orders have put the Administration in the position of separating alien families to effectively enforce the law.”

However, we disagree that court orders forced the administration to separate these families, as the recent increase resulted from the zero-tolerance policy and a change in how current laws were practiced. Former presidencies were able to avoid this swelling of separated children through carrying out the law differently than the current administration. The current administration created and then issued a solution on Wednesday to the problem they started.

Utah-based organizations like the LDS Church and Catholic Diocese and Salt Lake chapter of the NAACP and Utahn leaders like Sen. Mia Love, Rep. John Curtis and Sen. Orrin Hatch all spoke out against the separation of families and treatment of these young children currently taking place along the U.S.’s borders.

We’re not against strong borders. We believe they must be protected. But so many Utahns are immigrants themselves, have family or friends that are immigrants, and believe a balance must be struck between the law and human decency.

Like Love, we believe the effort cannot stop at the executive order. While Utah’s federal delegation has come out against the separation of children from their families, they have work to do. Our Republican-held Congress cannot derail the job before them to fix our nation’s broken immigration system and laws. Once Congress passes these new laws, we expect the executive branch to uphold them.

Do you know what your representatives are actively doing to work on immigration reform? Reach out to them, and ask them. Demand straight answers on what they will do to contribute to a solution that represents Utahns’ firm but benevolent stance on immigration.

As for what happens to the children currently being held separately, there are too many unknowns on how or when they will be reunited with their families.

Whatever the solution may be, Americans must continue to put pressure on the government and demand solutions to reconnecting these families, providing better housing for these migrant families and swift processing.

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