The opinion poll I "generously attached" was not intended to support my "somewhat laughable and NON SENSE" response, at least not with respect to
"They clearly never intended to re-unite the children with their parents." Why would anyone think an opinion poll would be used to support that?

It was intended to cite just how strikingly "different" the opinions of Republicans and Trump supporters in general are with respect to the issue of separating families, setting them apart from people in general, which by the way includes them, by more than a factor of 2, i.e., with 58% and 62% approval, respectively, vs. 28% for people in general.

As for the rest of your post, I refer you to the fact-check article linked below. It includes a video titled, "Is there a law that requires families to be separated at the border? | Fact Checker". And as the article says, "We’ve published two fact-checks about family separations, but it turns out these Trumpian claims have a zombie quality and keep popping up in new ways."

"This is a question of Trump and his Cabinet choosing to enforce some laws over others. The legal landscape did not change between the time the Trump administration released nearly 100,000 immigrants during its first 15 months and the time the zero-tolerance policy took effect in April 2018."

"What changed was the administration’s handling of these cases. Undocumented immigrant families seeking asylum previously were released and went into the civil court system, but now the parents are being detained and sent to criminal courts while their kids are resettled in the United States as though they were unaccompanied minors."

Legal ports of entry were/are being blocked to anyone suspected of seeking asylum.

As Hoodeac posted below, the policy for "illegal entry", which is actually called "improper" or "unlawful" entry, has generally been to prosecute it as a misdemeanor under federal law and subject to a CIVIL penalty, under 8 U.S.C. 1325(b).

https://www.justice.gov/usam/criminal-resource-manual-1911-8-usc-1325-unlawful-entry-failure-depart-fleeing-immigration

It can carry civil penalties "instead of or on top of criminal penalties." The latter part is important with respect to the Sessions memo below. The civil penalty amount is at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or attempted entry); or twice that amount if the illegal entrant has been previously fined a civil penalty for the same violation.

So it's nowhere even close to "drug dealing". Drug trafficking/distribution is a felony.

HOWEVER, Sessions abruptly changed that POLICY with his April 6, 2018 memo titled “Zero-Tolerance for Offenses Under 8 U.S.C. 1325(a)”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-announces-zero-tolerance-policy-criminal-illegal-entry

In his memo, he directed each U.S. Attorney’s Office along the Southwest Border to adopt a POLICY of prosecuting all Department of Homeland Security referrals of section 1325(a) violations, to the extent practicable, i.e., to prosecute illegal entry as a CRIMINAL offense instead of CIVIL offense. 1325(a) says that the first such offense carries a fine under title 18, United States Code, OR imprisonment not more than 6 months, OR both, and for a subsequent such offense, a fine, OR imprisonment not more than 2 years, OR both.

The FACT that the Trump administration is now asking for even more time to meet the deadlines set by a federal judge 10 days ago ordering that separated children be reunited with their parents speaks volumes about both the administration's lack of preparation and INTENT to ever reunite them.

They're now even scrambling to use DNA tests to match children up with their parents. And this was after Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar stated that he could locate “any child” in his department’s care “within seconds“ through an online government database.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/26/azar-separated-families-673186

But it now turns out that, "Records linking children to their parents have disappeared, and in some cases have been destroyed, according to two officials of the Department of Homeland Security, leaving the authorities struggling to identify connections between family members. Surprise, surprise.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/us/migrant-children-chaos-family-separation.html

The judge isn't buying it either.

"At today's status hearing, Judge Dana Sabraw asked the government for a list of all the children under the age of 5 it believes are in the class of children covered by the reunification order — plus any reasons officials believe they may need more time for reunions in particular cases.

The government has until 5 p.m. Saturday to turn over that order."

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/us-immigration-family-reunifications/index.html

Dollars to donuts, they won't comply.