That honour goes to Attorney General Sessions, who said this Thursday: "Let me take an aside to discuss concerns raised by our church friends about separating families".

He has attempted to use the plight of the children as political leverage in an upcoming battle over two immigration bills in the House, and has falsely claimed that federal law requires the separation of families trying to cross the border.

"I hate the children being taken away", President Trump said Friday.

On Saturday, Trump was more direct: "Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change!" "After banging on the door and making it clear that we WILL NOT MOVE until we're allowed in, ICE is finally granting us access to see individuals who have been separated from their families", tweeted Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents New York's 12th District. "You need 60 votes".

Nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their families at the United States southern border over a six-week period during a crackdown on illegal entries, according to Department of Homeland Security figures obtained on Friday by the Associated Press.

The former White House chief strategist said in an interview with ABC's "This Week" that he does not believe that Trump has frequently lied. "They want them to be left alone", he said.

Bannon was seemingly correct, however, in his assertion that the Trump administration is not looking to back away from its "zero-tolerance" immigration policy as senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also weighed in and defended the policy.

They have cited several "loopholes" in the law that they wish to close as a means to stop illegal immigration, and therefore remove the need for a zero-tolerance policy. During the Obama and Bush administration, most undocumented immigrants who were caught at the border were released pending a hearing - which many never showed up for.

Roughly 2,000 children have reportedly been separated from their parents so far, and authorities say the number could soon double.

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But if parents in the United States are jailed, their children are split from them because the children are not themselves charged with a crime.

Asked whether the President was willing to end the policy, she said: "The president is ready to get meaningful immigration reform across the board". "If you don't like that, then don't smuggle children over our border".

In 2005, he launched Operation Streamline, a program along a stretch of the border in Texas that referred all unlawful entrants for criminal prosecution, imprisoning them and expediting assembly-line-style trials geared toward quickly deporting them.

Kraft said that the separation from their parents is inflicting serious damage to the children.

"Right now, we are in a circumstance where either we choose to enforce the law or we choose to ignore it", a DHS official said.

But Brooks' suggestion is rooted in present-day evidence; in recent days, leaders of various religious organizations have made announcements in support of immigrant families. Republican Senator Susan Collins of ME said Sunday the number "may well be higher".

"Ripping children out of their parents' arms to inflict harm on the child to influence the parents", he added, "is unacceptable".

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director of the immigrant advocacy program at the Legal Aid Justice Centre in Virginia, said he's never worked with immigrants who said US policies influenced their decision to move.