President Joe Biden's executive order on Tuesday addressing his predecessor's cruel policy of separating immigrant children from their parents marks an important step toward restoring America's tattered international image and reversing one of the most egregious U.S. human rights violations in modern times. The policy of yanking kids away from their parents — and in some cases losing the tracing documents so they couldn't be reunited — was designed from the start to be punitive and vengeful. On a 10-point Trumpian scale of heartlessness, this policy went to 11.

Biden has come out boldly on the subject of immigration, in some cases too boldly and too quickly without making sure the consequences of his proposals don't outweigh the good. But on family separations, there is no debate. No self-respecting Republican could credibly claim that former President Donald Trump's separation policy meshed with the GOP's pro-family platform. It horrified many top Republicans and Trump-friendly evangelical leaders.

"This is about how America is safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly, and humane, and legal immigration system," Biden declared in reversing Trump's policy. His executive order, he added, is designed to "undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families — their mothers and fathers at the border — and with no plan, none whatsoever, to reunify the children who are still in custody and their parents."

His order creates an interagency task force responsible for locating children and parents — including those deported to their home countries — with the goal of reuniting them.

A second, much needed order refocuses the nation's immigration priorities on addressing the root causes of mass migration, particularly from Central America. For all of the time, money and energy Trump wasted on his cherished border wall, he was woefully inattentive to the forces of poverty, corruption and gang violence that drive people to migrate. Until those elements are addressed, the mass-migration problem will continue. The billions of dollars Trump diverted to construct a few dozen miles of border wall would have been more effective if spent helping Central American governments tackle gang violence, drug trafficking, and police and judicial corruption.

"We cannot solve the humanitarian crisis at our border without addressing the violence, instability, and lack of opportunity that compel so many people to flee their homes," Biden's order states.

The cheap and reliable labor markets of Central America should be a natural fit for international manufacturers looking for closer-to-home alternatives to China. But they won't dare invest in countries like Honduras or El Salvador if the security risks outweigh the benefits. Biden's new focus puts the emphasis where it belongs and helps America transform its heartless image to one of a collaborative international problem solver.

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