Trump says US ‘will not be a migrant camp’ after child immigrants separated from parents at border

President Donald Trump has defended his administration's "no-tolerance" immigration policy that has led to the separation of immigrant families seeking shelter in the United States, saying that America "will not be a migrant camp" to house the world's immigrants.

"The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility," Mr Trump said Monday during a meeting with his space council in the White House.

The president's defiant comments come amid increased scrutiny of a recent policy change announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which instructs American immigration forces to prosecute undocumented immigrants arriving at the US border illegally to be slapped with criminal charges — even in instances where those arriving immigrants claim credible fear as a qualifier as they seek asylum from dangerous and violent circumstances in their own country.

The concerns around those policies have been heightened recently after it was reported that as many as 2,000 immigrant children were taken away from their parents by immigration officials, and put into shelters that in some cases have been described as cages for the detention of the children. In some cases, immigrants were misled by US officials and told their children were being taken for naps, baths, or a change of clothes before later realising that heir children had been taken without notice.

Mr Trump, during his remarks Monday, cast blame for those circumstances on Democrats, even though the president's administration unilaterally announced the new "no-tolerance" policies, and even though previous administrations have practised discretion in their approaches to family detention and charging migrants who cross the border claiming credible fear in their home countries.

"I say it very strongly, it's the Democrats' fault," Mr Trump said.

"If the Democrats would sit down instead of obstructing, we could have something done very quickly," Mr Trump continued later in his remarks, arguing that Democrats are using their votes in Congress to push back on immigration votes even though Republicans control both chambers of Congress. "Good for the children, good for the country, good for the world."

As immigrant groups and advocates cried foul about the treatment of families at the American border, top members of the Trump administration have circled the wagons alongside the president in recent days, and have argued that the new policies are a reflection of American law, and that the US does not have standing policies promoting family separation.

"We will not apologise for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job the American people expect us to do," Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said Monday. "Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards".

Separately, Ms Neilsen tweeted Monday that immigrants arriving at American ports of entry and seeking asylum will not face any change in policy, and that children will only be removed from their parents in those instances if it is believed that the child is at risk if they remain with the adult who they were with when they arrived at the border.