Trump ends migrant family separations
The president signs a decree to stop the splitting up of parents and children, saying 'we want to keep families together'.
Wednesday 20 June 2018 21:06, UK
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to end family separations at the southern US border.
During the signing ceremony at the Oval Office, Mr Trump said: "I consider it to be a very important executive order.
"It's about keeping families together while at the same time being sure that we have a very powerful, very strong border, and border security will be equal if not greater than previously.
"We're going to have strong, very strong borders, but we're going to keep the families together. I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated."
The president added that the "zero tolerance" policy will continue
In comments made on Wednesday, Mr Trump again drew attention to the Democrats.
He has repeatedly blamed the party for the situation on the border, saying it "won't give us the votes to pass good immigration legislation".
"They really would like to have open borders where anybody in the world can just flow in," he said.
The Democratic party does not have a policy of open borders.
Mr Trump's address followed Paul Ryan's announcement that the House of Representatives would vote on a bill to keep migrant families together, negotiated as a compromise between Republican conservatives and moderates.
The top Republican in the US Congress said: "We do not want children taken away from their parents. We can enforce our immigration laws without breaking families apart. The administration says it wants Congress to act and we are."
There is no guarantee Mr Ryan's measures will pass, however, and the speaker did not offer any back-up plan.
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Since 5 May, 2,300 children have been separated from their families at the border in Mexico.
It comes as families try to enter the US illegally.
Mr Trump's administration has launched a "zero tolerance" approach, meaning everyone who crosses the border without permission is sent for criminal proceedings.
As children cannot go to federal jail they are sent to other detention centres while their parents await trial.
With thousands now separated, Washington has been under growing pressure to end the practice.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed Theresa May in condemning the practice. He said separating children was "unacceptable", adding it was "not the way we do things in Canada".
Mr Trump met behind closed doors with several members of his party earlier this week, with insiders reporting he was aware of the political damage the border policy was causing.
Outrage at separations prompted American Airlines to ask the US not to use its flights to transport children separated from their parents.
Flight attendants have reported seeing groups of children who they believed to be separated from migrant families, on planes.