Minister condemns Trump... at last: US president's immigration policy lambasted as 'indefensible' by Universities minister Sam Gyimah

Donald Trump's immigration policy was today lambasted as “indefensible” by a government minister amid growing pressure on Theresa May to unequivocally condemn the “caging” of migrant children.

Universities minister Sam Gyimah hit out at the US president’s hardline policy on illegal immigration which has seen distraught youngsters torn away from their families. According to US reports even toddlers have been taken from their parents.

“Separating children from their parents in this way is beyond dreadful,” Mr Gyimah tweeted. “This policy is indefensible, pure and simple!”

He told the Evening Standard: “I understand governments have to make difficult decisions and the area of immigration policy and enforcement is a notoriously difficult area. But surely you should look to enforce and deter in a way in which the most vulnerable, in this case children, are not put at risk.”

His strong words piled pressure on the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to take a tougher line on Mr Trump amid growing criticism of the White House, including from US tech giants, political leaders and human rights groups.

Yesterday Downing Street stopped short of criticising the US policy, though it stressed that Britain had a different, “humane” system.

The Trump administration’s new policy means that illegal migrants caught crossing from Mexico face criminal prosecution and being jailed separately from their children, rather than being sent back home.

More than 2,300 children have been taken from their parents at the US-Mexico border since the policy went into effect in May.

Harrowing recordings have emerged of children crying out for their parents and other relatives.

Toddlers are being sent to “tender age” shelters set up along America’s border with Mexico, according to US reports. Eye witnesses have described rooms of crying children aged younger than five in at least three shelters in south Texas.

“Toddlers are being detained,” said Kay Bellor, from the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which provides foster care and other child welfare services to migrant children. “The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” she said.

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright tweeted: “To be clear, immigrants, legal or not, are people who want to improve their lives.

"To refer to them as animals or insects is to foster hate. What’s happening in Washington and on our border is sad, wrong, and unamerican.”

Her comments prompted Mr Gyimah to speak out, and other MPs have voiced their disgust at the policy.

“The forced separation of young children from their parents at the US border is wicked,” said former Tory minister Nick Boles.

Another former Tory minister, George Freeman, added: “Our Foreign Secretary should make clear to the Trump Administration that this lets down not just America in the eyes of the world, but all of us in the global #TestOfTheWest.”

Steven Wagner, an official with the US Department of Health and Human Services, denied the policy was inhumane. “We have specialised facilities that are devoted to providing care to children with special needs and tender age children as we define as under 13 would fall into that category,” he said.

“They’re not government facilities per se, and they have very well-trained clinicians, and those facilities meet state licensing standards for child welfare agencies, and they’re staffed by people who know how to deal with the needs, particularly of the younger children.”

In a letter sent to Attorney General Jeff Sessions yesterday, a dozen Republican senators said separating families wasn’t consistent with American values and ordinary human decency.

The public anger over the issue exploded in Washington last night when Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to leave a Mexican restaurant after she was confronted by protesters.

US tech giants also pitched themselves against Mr Trump’s clampdown on illegal crossings which was described as “abhorrent” by Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, himself the son of immigrants. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said: “We need to stop this policy right now” and Apple boss Tim Cook said the situation was “inhumane”.

A fundraiser on Facebook to help reunite families has so far raised more than $6 million, growing at a rate of thousands of dollars every minute.

The US also faced criticism over the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council, claiming it was biased against Israel and needed reform. China expressed regret at the American move.