Donald Trump to end policy separating children from their parents

The US president has said that he will sign an executive order stopping families being separated at US borders

Donald Trump has said he will end the policy that has seen over 2,300 children being taken from their parents in the past number of weeks by border officials. He said that he remains committed to policing migration into the country.

"We’re looking to keep families together," he told journalists this afternoon. "Very important. We’re going to be signing an executive order. "We’re going to keep families together but we still have to maintain toughness or our country will be overrun by people, by crime, by all of the things that we don’t stand for and that we don’t want. "So I’m going to be signing an executive order in a little while before I go to Minnesota but, at the same time, I think you have to understand, we’re keeping families together but we have to keep our borders strong. We will be overrun with crime and with people that should not be in our country.”

The president was criticised by the United Nations, foreign leaders and both Republicans and Democrats for the treatment of migrants at the country's borders. A zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration was announced in early May.