Trump ends family separation

US president reverses tough policy under heavy pressure from international community.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump ordered an end to the separation of migrant children from their parents on the US border Wednesday, reversing a tough policy under heavy pressure from his fellow Republicans, Democrats and the international community.

The spectacular about-face comes after more than 2,300 children were stripped from their parents and adult relatives after illegally crossing the border since May 5 and placed in tent camps and other facilities, with no way to contact their relatives.

Despite the order, there was no plan in place to reunite the thousands of children already separated from their families, according to multiple US media reports citing officials from the Health and Human Services Department (HHS).

Those youngsters would remain separated while their parents were under federal custody during immigration proceedings, according to The New York Times, before officials backed off those comments on Wednesday.

“It is still very early and we are awaiting further guidance on the matter,” said Brian Marriott, senior director of communications at HHS’s Administration of Children and Families.

“Reunification is always the ultimate goal,” he said.

Pictures and accounts of the separations sparked outrage and a rebellion among Republicans in Trump’s own party, as well as international

accusation that the US was committing human rights violations.

“What we have done today is we are keeping families together,” Trump said as he signed the executive order. — AFP

— AFP Signs of the times: People protesting the separation of children from their parents in front of the El Paso Processing Center, an immigration detention facility, at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas.