A new border security policy mandates separating children from parents who are apprehended after illegally entering the United States. The families can face federal criminal prosecution even if making an asylum claim.

Though prosecution of illegal immigrants has always been the law, in practice, the U.S. government in the past did not always charge parents who crossed the border illegally with their children, instead referring them to immigration court for resolution of their cases.

Despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s commitment to turning the tide on homelessness, New York City taxpayers continue footing hotel bills for thousands of homeless people.

The city has a rare “right to shelter” legal mandate that requires it to give temporary emergency housing to any who are eligible and ask for help. Putting homeless people in hotels is a stopgap measure to keep people off the street when shelters fill up. New York City has more than 60,000 homeless people, a third of whom are children.

Americans began nearly 300,000 GoFundMe online fundraising campaigns to help with their own or friends’ housing problems since 2015 alone, according to a report by the U.S. edition of The Guardian. The numbers show more people are taking the drastic measure of publicizing their need as widely as possible online when facing homelessness from fire, eviction, or simply not having resources to buy or rent a place.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson unveiled a plan last week to address some of the most critical problems with the federal government’s rent assistance program. Carson said the reforms would simplify the process for receiving aid, encourage recipients to become less dependent on welfare, and save taxpayers money. But the plan also has raised fears that rents could triple for the poorest beneficiaries of the program.

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on a bill to change how federal prisons function. The law would direct correctional facilities to focus less on retribution and more on redemption of prisoners through training opportunities to prepare for a life on the outside, breaking the cycle of release and rearrest.

Critics of President Donald Trump’s 2019 budget proposal to change and reduce expenses in the national food stamps program now fear a proposal from House Republicans to expand work requirements for all recipients.

The backlash centers on a new stipulation requiring the same number of work hours for those with dependents as those without, though people caring for children younger than 6 would be exempt. The new work requirements would start in 2021 and increase from 20 hours per week to 25 hours in 2026.

A new battlefront has emerged in the war on opioids, as dealers go online to peddle illicit drugs by mail. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said drug deals on encrypted portions of the internet, called the darknet, are “pouring fuel on the fire of the national drug epidemic.”