Are the people who are separating children from families "merely following orders"?

I’m think of the Nuremberg War trials after WW II. A large number of German Army defendants said that they were “merely following orders” and that they should not be found guilty of atrocities at concentration camps and other sites of Nazi killings.

That defense didn’t work very well for the Germans.

So, are the ICE people that are breaking up families “merely following orders”? Or are they true believers in what they are doing?