President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday ending his administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents who were detained as they attempted to enter the U.S. illegally.

The action came after a firestorm of protest from administration opponents and allies, reacting to pictures and sounds of young children traumatized by their separation from their parents at the hands of U.S. authorities.

"So 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," said Trump.

He is, in effect, ordering family separation to be replaced with the detention of whole families together, even after earlier arguing that "you can't do it by executive order."

What does the executive order say?

The president says his administration is trying to balance rigorous enforcement of U.S. immigration laws and pursue its policy of maintaining family unity. He says his administration was put "in the position of separating alien families to effectively enforce the law" due to "Congress's failure to act" and "court orders."

What court orders is he talking about?

The administration has consistently said that it was forced to separate families due to a court case known as "the Flores Settlement." That settlement, reached in 1997, required the government to limit the time it kept unaccompanied minors in detention, and to keep them in the least restrictive setting possible. The settlement was later modified to say that children should not be held longer than 20 days.

The executive order directs the attorney general to promptly file a request with U.S. District Judge Dolly Gree in the Central District of California to modify the Flores Settlement and allow detained migrant families to be held together "throughout the pendency of criminal proceedings ... or other immigration proceedings."

What else did Trump order?

The president directed Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to maintain custody of detained families during criminal proceedings and as their asylum claims are adjudicated. Also, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and the heads of other agencies are ordered to find or construct facilities to house the detained families. Finally, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is directed to prioritize the adjudication of cases involving detained families.

What does the executive order mean for the plans of House Republicans to pass their own legislation to address the crisis?

After visiting Capitol Hill Tuesday night to rally a broad immigration bill, Trump said Wednesday he still hopes that Congress will act.

"We will be going through Congress. We're working on a much more comprehensive bill," Trump said before signing the order. But as The Washington Post reports, few people are predicting either House measure will pass.

So what happens to the children who have been separated from their parents?

It is not immediately clear whether, or when, detained children will be reunited with their parents.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, Kenneth Wolfe, told The New York Times that detained children won't be joining their detained parents soon.

"There will not be a grandfathering of existing cases," said Wolfe, as quoted by the Times.

Reyna Torres Mendivil, Mexico's consul general in San Antonio, told NPR's Audie Cornish that the process would be hampered by the U.S. separation process, which keeps parents in ICE custody while moving children into facilities controlled by the Department of Health and Human Services.

"The U.S. authorities create different files for the children than for the parents, and it's very difficult to follow up on those cases," Torres said.

What's the reaction to the executive order?

Immigrant advocates say the president's executive order is no solution, and will only create more trauma for children, as they will be placed in facilities that are unfit for minors.

"First, there are more than 2,000 children already separated from their parents; the executive order does nothing to address that nightmare," said Michelle Brané, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women's Refugee Commission. "Second, this executive order effectively creates family prisons, which we already know are a threat to the well-being of children."

"The president doesn't get any Brownie points for moving from a policy of locking up kids and families separately to a policy of locking them up together," said Karen Tumlin, director of Legal Strategy at the National Immigration Law Center. "Let's be clear: Trump is making a crisis of his own creation worse."

Some on the right are equally dismayed.

"According to any fair reading of the order, it represents a massive capitulation by the administration," wrote National Review senior writer David French.

But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies supported the president.

"Getting rid of the Flores Settlement is the quickest way to solve the problem," Krikorian told The Washington Post. "The government has been faced with the choice of either splitting the family by detaining the parent and releasing the kid, or just letting the parent go too." </s> President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end separation of immigrant families on the US-Mexico border, after images of children in cages sparked global outrage.

Trump signed the executive order following widespread protests against the move of his administration to separate children from their parents who illegally enter the country. In recent weeks, more than 2,500 such children were separated from their parents.

"We're keeping families together, and this will solve that problem. At the same time, we are keeping a very powerful border and it continues to be a zero-tolerance. We have zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House as he signed the executive order.

The executive order, signed by Trump, asks the Department of Homeland Security to keep families together while people await trial for illegal border crossing. But cases where there is a concern that parents "would pose a risk to the child's welfare" have been exempted from the executive order.

Trump said the executive order is about keeping families together while at the same time making sure that they have a very powerful and strong border. "And border security will be equal, if not greater than previously. We are going to have very strong borders, but we're going to keep the families together," he said.

Trump said he didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated. "It's a problem that's gone on for many years, as you know, through many administrations. We are working very hard on immigration. It's been left out in the cold. People haven't dealt with it, and we are dealing with it," he said.

Trump's opponents, however, were not satisfied with the executive order, asserting that this was not enough.

"The President's Executive Order seeks to replace one form of child abuse with another. Instead of protecting traumatised children, the President has directed his Attorney General to pave the way for the long-term incarceration of families in prison-like conditions," said Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"It is particularly galling that President Trump seeks to continue violating children's human rights to justify and gin up support for the anti-family language included in Speaker Ryan's anti-immigrant bill," she said.

Pelosi said using terrified small children as "leverage" to push the President's anti-immigrant agenda represents an "unspeakably appalling moral low-point for our nation”.

Top Democratic leader Congressman Joe Crowley said while this order stops the separation of children from their parents, it does not end the administration's despicable policy of unreasonably detaining asylum seekers and families fleeing violence.

"Instead of pushing legislation that endorses the Trump administration's policy of detaining families, House Republicans should join Democrats in calling for an end to the policy and in making sure we reunite the families that have been ripped apart," he said.

"The thousands of children who have spent days, weeks, and months without the love and support of their parents deserve nothing less," Crowley added.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio welcomed the executive order. "But Congress still needs to act because what they're doing, while very humane, violates something called the 'Flores Settlement', which means someone's going to take this to court and they're going to get it thrown out," he said.

On Wednesday, Rubio introduced a bill that basically allows people who unlawfully entered to the country to be held together with their children. "And we also add new judges so that we can expedite the hearing they're entitled to, and dispose of their case either by sending them back together as a family or admitting them into the country as a family. We have to act and I hope we can pass that law," he said.

Anastasia Tonello, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association said the detention of families – parents and children – who pose no flight risk or danger to the community is simply "unacceptable, abrogates international responsibilities to refugees, and goes against our country's most fundamental values".

"We need to embrace our legacy as a safe haven for the persecuted and stop subjecting bona-fide refugees to further trauma by locking them up while they pursue their lawful claims to relief," Tonello said. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Donald Trump: "You're going to have a lot of very happy people"

US President Donald Trump has bowed to public pressure and signed an executive order promising to "keep families together" in migrant detentions.

Mr Trump reversed his own policy amid international fury over the separation of undocumented parents and children.

He said he had been swayed by images of children who have been taken from parents while they are jailed and prosecuted for illegal border-crossing.

But the order does not address families already separated by the policy.

US immigration officials say 2,342 children were separated from 2,206 parents between 5 May and 9 June.

"It's about keeping families together," Mr Trump said at the signing ceremony on Wednesday.

"I did not like the sight of families being separated," he said, but added the administration would continue its "zero tolerance policy" of criminally prosecuting anyone who crosses the border illegally.

More on child migrants crisis

The executive order calls for:

Immigrant families to be detained together while their legal cases are considered

Expediting immigration cases involving families

Requesting the modification of a court ruling that dictates how long immigrant children can be detained

The president said his wife, Melania, and daughter, Ivanka, who reportedly have been applying pressure on him to drop the policy, "feel strongly" about ending the practice of separating migrant families.

"I think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it," he said. "We don't like to see families separated."

Vice-President Mike Pence and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who has emerged as the face of the White House policy, were both present for the signing of the order on Wednesday.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US youth shelter worker quit after being ordered to separate siblings

Before his U-turn on Wednesday the president had previously said "you can't do it through an executive order", insisting that only Congress could fix the policy by passing immigration reform.

Republican congressional leader Paul Ryan said the House of Representatives will vote on Thursday "on legislation to keep families together".

He did not immediately provide details of the bill, but said it resolves the issue of so-called Dreamers, undocumented adult migrants who entered the US as children, "in a very elegant way".

Trump backs down

Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

For days administration officials have insisted they were simply following the law as written and their "zero tolerance" policy for illegal border crossings meant they "have to take the children away", in the president's words.

Critics have countered that Mr Trump unilaterally created the situation that produced the heart-rending accounts of children separated from their parents, and he could unilaterally fix it.

By taking executive action, the president is effectively acknowledging they were correct.

Now the fight will probably move to the courts, with legal challenges to the administration's decision to hold detained families together while their immigration status is adjudicated.

That is more politically hospitable ground for Republicans, who already face challenging mid-term congressional elections.

Read more of Anthony Zurcher's analysis

Why the uproar?

In April, the US attorney general announced a "zero-tolerance" policy to criminally charge and jail undocumented border crossers.

As children cannot legally be jailed with their parents, they are kept in separate facilities.

US immigration officials say more than 2,300 children have been taken from some 2,200 parents since 5 May.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The sound of migrant children separated from parents

Pictures of dozens of children sleeping in fenced enclosures and audio of them crying emerged in recent days, provoking widespread criticism.

Under previous US administrations, immigrants caught crossing the border for the first time tended to be issued with court summonses and released.

Six American airlines have told the Trump administration not to use their aircraft to transport child migrants who have been separated from their parents.

Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest and United airlines all said the policy contravened their values.

Where are the children taken?

Holding cells: They are first detained at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities, where chain-link fenced enclosures are used, though the children can only be legally held there for three days.

Detention centres: They are then supposed to be moved to one of around 100 detention centres run through the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of the Department of Health and Human Services. US officials recently showed reporters around a converted Walmart Supercenter in Texas which was housing migrant boys aged 10-17. They apparently had access to beds, classes and games.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Migrant boys detained in a former Walmart in Texas

"Tender age shelters": AP news agency reports that babies and toddlers are being taken to three "tender age shelters" in southern Texas. A CBP official said it is up to the discretion of border agents whether to detain "tender-aged" children, who are typically less than five years old.

Tent camps: US officials have set up a tent camp for migrant children in Tornillo, Texas.

Family members: Under US law, the children are meant to be released to stay with relatives or foster carers "without delay". In practice, the ORR says this process takes about two months.

How are they reunited? Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has set up a hotline for parents to call after they are released from custody. However, a former ICE director has said some family separations are "permanent".

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The US teens training in border patrol

What happens now?

Mr Trump's order says that families could remain together in detention instead of separating children from parents illegally crossing into the country.

But immigrant children are only allowed to be held for 20 days, according to a 21-year-old landmark court decision known as the Flores agreement.

The order also calls for the justice department to request to modify the Flores agreement to allow children to be held longer, but it is unclear what will happen if the law does not change.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The missing - consequences of Trump's immigration crackdown

The Trump administration is likely to become tangled in legal battles with immigration activists on behalf of detained migrants if it is unable to overturn the Flores agreement before the 20-day deadline.

"This is a stopgap measure," said Gene Hamilton, counsel to Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The order also did not provide any date or timeline on when it would be implemented and does not address how the more than 2,000 children already stripped from their families would be reunited.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar has said his department will begin working to return detained immigrant children to their families, but did not give a timeline.

A top HHS official told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday they have no system in place to do so. </s> A US judge ordered that migrant families separated at the border with Mexico under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy be reunited within 30 days.

For children under five, reunification must take place within two weeks of the order, issued Tuesday by US District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego.

Sabraw issued the ruling in response to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a seven-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was separated from his Brazilian mother.

The judge also issued an injunction against any more family separations.

US federal authorities have 10 days to allow parents to call their children if they are not already in touch with them.

Trump signed an executive order last week halting his government's practice of taking children away from parents who cross the border without papers, even to seek asylum. Many are fleeing violence in Central America.

But the order made no specific provisions for families already separated under the policy, which drew scorn as inhumane and even a form of child abuse in heated criticism in America and around the world.

More than 2,000 children taken from their families remain under the care of federal authorities.

The judge was scathing in his criticism of the Trump policy of taking kids away from their parents.

"The facts set forth before the court portray reactive governance -- responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the government's own making," Sabraw wrote in the 24-page ruling.

"They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution," the judge added. </s> Los Angeles: US judge has ordered that migrant families separated at the border with Mexico under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy be reunited within 30 days.



 For children under five, reunification must take place within two weeks of the order issued Tuesday by US District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego.

Sabraw made the sternly worded decision in response to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a seven-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was separated from his Brazilian mother.The judge also issued an injunction against any more family separations, which was part of a policy under which anyone crossing the border illegally is detained and referred for criminal prosecution.US federal authorities have 10 days to allow parents to call their children if they are not already in touch with them, the judge said.Trump last week signed an executive order halting his government's practice of taking children away from parents who cross the border without papers, even to seek asylum. Many are destitute people fleeing gang violence and other turmoil in Central America.It was a rare retreat for Trump, who has made fighting immigration -- both illegal and legal -- one of the most sacred mantras of his fiercely US-centered policy agenda.But the order made no specific provisions for families already separated under the policy, which sparked heated criticism in America and worldwide as inhumane and even a form of child abuse.More than 2,000 children taken from their families remain under the care of federal authorities. Some are just toddlers, or even infants.The ACLU argued that the administration has no real plan for reuniting families.Every night small children "are crying themselves to sleep wondering if they will ever see their parents again," said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.Now, the policy of detaining parents who cross illegally with children has been suspended, with authorities saying that among other factors they do not have space for all the families coming over from Mexico.Judge Sabraw was scathing in his criticism of the Trump policy of taking children away from their parents."The facts set forth before the court portray reactive governance -- responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the government's own making," Sabraw wrote in the 24-page ruling."They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution," the judge added.The attorneys-general of 18 mainly Democratic states also filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Trump family separation policy.They argued that Trump's order halting the practice has so many caveats it is meaningless. It calls for money to be appropriated to reunite families but does not say how much or by when, and depends on a judge allowing indefinite detention of children, the officials wrote."Keeping children separated from their parents is inhumane, unconscionable and illegal -- and we're filing suit to stop it," wrote Attorney General Barbara Underwood of New York.Some 200 protesters turned out in Los Angeles to protest a visit by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of the most visible faces of the Trump border control policy.Around 20 were arrested after defying police orders to disperse.Trump did score a big win on immigration Tuesday, however, as the US Supreme Court upheld the latest version of his travel ban targeting people from some Muslim-majority countries.By a 5-4 vote, the court's conservative majority said Trump was within his legal authority as president to issue such a ban.Trump pounced on the decision as an endorsement of his authority to defend national security and "a tremendous success and victory for the American people."Immigration has been among the thorniest issue in American politics for decades, with Congress repeatedly failing to pass comprehensive reforms.The House of Representatives intends to vote Wednesday on a broad immigration bill that ends family separations, but passage is in doubt. Should the bill fail, it would be a dramatic embarrassment for Trump's party.Hannah Hanmer, who was protesting with her baby in Los Angeles, said she was angry the government was trying "to remove human dignity from immigrants" arriving with children."I want to be one of the people who said no," the 26-year-old told AFP.(WAH) </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump backed down and abandoned on Wednesday his policy of separating immigrant children from their families on the U.S.-Mexico border, after images of youngsters in cages sparked outrage at home and abroad.

Trump signed an executive order requiring that immigrant families be detained together when they are caught entering the country illegally for as long as their criminal proceedings take. That may violate a court settlement on how long children may be held, setting up a potential legal fight, unless Congress acts on the issue.

The Trump order, an unusual reversal by him, also moves parents with children to the front of the line for immigration proceedings. The order does not end a 10-week-old “zero tolerance” policy that calls for criminal prosecution of immigrants crossing the border illegally.

“It’s about keeping families together while at the same time making sure that we have a very powerful, very strong border,” Trump said as he signed the order in a hastily arranged Oval Office gathering minutes before departing for a campaign event.

The videos of kids sitting in cages and an audiotape of wailing children had sparked anger in the United States from groups ranging from clergy to influential business leaders, as well as condemnation from abroad, including by Pope Francis.

Trump, an avid viewer of cable television news, recognised that the family separation issue was a growing political problem, White House sources said.

First Lady Melania Trump, in private conversations with the president, urged him to do something, a White House official said. In the Oval Office, Trump said he had heard from his daughter Ivanka about the policy, too.

“Ivanka feels very strongly. My wife feels very strongly about it. I feel very strongly about it. I think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it,” Trump said.

Wednesday’s move was the most significant policy reversal by Trump since he took office in January 2017. Instinctively combative and fond of chaos, Trump usually digs in on controversial policies, rather than backing down.

But the volume of condemnation on breaking up families, from inside and outside the White House, finally overwhelmed Trump.

The reversal also creates a series of new headaches for the administration, as it wrestles with where to house families that are detained together, possibly for long periods, and how to reunite families that already have been separated.

“This executive order would replace one crisis for another. Children don’t belong in jail at all, even with their parents, under any set of circumstances. If the president thinks placing families in jail indefinitely is what people have been asking for, he is grossly mistaken,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, in a statement.

Parents referred by border agents for prosecution are held in federal jails, while their children have remained in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody or have been moved into detention facilities managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a Department of Health and Human Services agency.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Tuesday that 2,342 children had been separated from their parents at the border between May 5 and June 9.

The order directs the U.S. Justice Department to seek a modification of a court order to permit families that enter the United States illegally to be detained together until their criminal proceedings are concluded, a text of the order shows.

It also directs the Department of Defense to take steps to house detained immigrant families as needed.

Trump has made a tough stance on immigration central to his presidency. In recent days, he had insisted his hands were tied by law on the issue of family separations and blamed Democrats for the problem, even though his administration implemented the policy of strict adherence to immigration law.

The Republican-controlled U.S. Congress is also considering legislation to address the issue. The House of Representatives planned to vote on Thursday on two bills designed to halt family separations and address a range of other immigration issues.

“We are working on a much more comprehensive bill,” Trump said.

Republicans said they were uncertain if either House measure would have enough votes to pass. Trump told House Republicans on Tuesday night he would support either of the bills.

Both House bills, which Democrats and immigration advocacy groups have blasted, would fund Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as reduce legal migration, in part by denying visas for some relatives of U.S. residents and citizens living abroad, sometimes called “chain migration.”

The more conservative bill from Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte also would deny the chance of future citizenship to “Dreamers,” who are immigrants brought illegally into the United States years ago as children.

House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters that compromise legislation under discussion would provide funding to allow the Department of Homeland Security enough resources to house and care for families as they stayed together during the process.

“Under this bill, when people are being prosecuted for illegally crossing the border, families will remain together under DHS custody throughout the length of their legal proceedings,” he said. </s> It’s been nearly two months since the Trump administration implemented its “zero tolerance” policy toward undocumented immigrants, prompting the separation of thousands of children from their parents.

And on Saturday, massive crowds are expected to take to the streets to say loud and clear that “Families Belong Together.”

The main march will take place in Lafayette Square in Washington, but hundreds of marches, protests and rallies are scheduled across the country to call for the immediate reunification of migrant families and an end to family detentions and separations.

Several rallies and marches are also set to be held in Southern California. Demonstrators will descend to Los Angeles City Hall for a march that will get underway at 11 a.m. The program will feature a wide range of speakers, including Mayor Eric Garcetti, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Kevin De Leon, singer-songwriter John Legend and actor Eugenio Derbez.

According to organizers, protesters have three demands:
• They want separated migrant families to be reunited immediately.
• They want the government to end family detentions.
• And they want the Trump administration to end its zero tolerance policy.

Demonstrators have been asked to wear white and carry signs with messages such as “Keep Families Together” or “Familias Unidas, No Dividas.”

And Saturday’s protests are just the latest. On Thursday, more than 1,000 female activists marched through Washington and ended up in a Senate office building to protest the White House’s policy.

According to US Capitol Police, 575 of them were arrested.

The crisis has been building for weeks

More than 2,500 undocumented children were separated from their parents in the weeks since the zero-tolerance policy took effect. Under the policy, any adult caught crossing the border illegally faced prosecution, and their children were sent to federal shelters all over the United States.

Outrage over the separations has been at a fever pitch for weeks. The anger hasn’t abated either, even after President Donald Trump signed an executive order June 20 reversing the family separation policy.

Six days after that order was signed, only six children had been reunited with their parents — meaning more than 2,000 children were still in limbo, feeding the furor and raising questions about whether the government actually has a plan to reunify families.

A federal judge this week ordered a halt to most family separations at the border and the reunification of families. Within 14 days, children under 5 were to be back with their parents, and within 30 days, children 5 and older were to be reunited with theirs.

But Families Belong Together protesters don’t want to wait.

Event organizers said Saturday’s protests are about addressing an ethical issue.

“This is not left or right,” said Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org, one of the organizations leading Saturday’s protests. “It is right and wrong.”

Galland said she and US Rep. Pramila Jayapal put out a call for protests less than two weeks ago, and they’ve been “overwhelmed” by the response.

Rallies will take place in 750 cities big and small all over the country, Galland said, as people stand up for the rights of migrant families.

“I think if you asked someone on the street, ‘Is it a political question whether we should tear babies out of their mother’s arms?’ they would say, ‘No, that’s a moral question,’ ” Galland told CNN’s Christi Paul. “And this is a moment of moral outrage.”

“This is beyond politics,” the Washington state Democrat said Saturday morning. According to her, the rallies are about keeping the issue “at the front of the agenda” and sending a message to Trump that he can change his policy immediately.

“You don’t put kids in cages,” she said. “You don’t separate breastfeeding babies from their mothers. You don’t put asylum-seekers in prison, and we’re calling for an end to that today.” </s> LOS ANGELES: A US judge ordered that migrant families separated at the border with Mexico under President Donald Trump’s "zero tolerance" policy be reunited within 30 days.

For children under five the reunification must take place within two weeks of the order, issued Tuesday by US District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego.

Sabraw issued the ruling in response to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a seven-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was separated from his Brazilian mother.



The judge also issued an injunction against any more family separations.

Trump signed an executive order last week halting his government’s practice of taking children away from parents who cross the border without papers, even to seek asylum. Many are fleeing violence in Central America.

But the order made no specific provisions for families already separated under the policy, which drew scorn as inhumane and even a form of child abuse in heated criticism in America and around the world. </s> related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

U.S. President Donald Trump backed down on Wednesday on an immigration policy that sparked outrage at home and abroad, signing an executive order to end the separation of children from their parents when immigrant families are caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump backed down on Wednesday on an immigration policy that sparked outrage at home and abroad, signing an executive order to end the separation of children from their parents when immigrant families are caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

The order requires that immigrant families be detained together when they are caught entering the country illegally, although it was not immediately clear for how long.

It also moves parents with children to the front of the line for immigration proceedings. The order does not end a "zero tolerance" policy that calls for criminal prosecution of immigrants crossing the border illegally.

“It's about keeping families together while at the same time making sure that we have a very powerful, very strong border,” Trump said as he signed the order in a hastily arranged Oval Office gathering.

Videos of youngsters in cages and an audiotape of wailing children had sparked anger in the United States from groups ranging from clergy to influential business leaders, as well as condemnation from abroad, including Pope Francis.

Trump, a frequent viewer of cable television newscasts, had recognised the family separation issue was a growing political problem, White House sources said. First lady Melania Trump, in private conversations with the president, urged him to do something, a White House official said.

"The first lady has been making her opinion known to the president for some time now, which was that he needed to do all he could to help families stay together," an official said.

Wednesday's move marked a rare instance since Trump took office in January 2017 in which he has changed course on a controversial policy, rather than digging in.

Trump has made a tough stance on immigration central to his presidency. In recent days, the Republican president had insisted his hands were tied by law on the issue of family separations and had sought to blame Democrats, although it was his administration that implemented the policy of strict adherence to immigration law.

The Republican-controlled U.S. Congress is also considering legislation to address the issue. The House of Representatives planned to vote on Thursday on two bills designed to halt the practice of separating families and to address other immigration issues.

But Republicans said they were uncertain if either measure would have enough support to be approved. Trump told House Republicans on Tuesday night he would support either of the immigration bills under consideration but did not give a preference.
U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order to "maintain family unity", amid global outrage over the separation of migrant children from their families, reversing the administration's policy. It affirms the U.S. policy of "detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources".