US President Donald Trump has aggressively defended his policy of separating children from their parents at the Mexico border, accusing the migrants of "infesting" the country, media reports said.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Trump used language evoking images of pests, not human beings, when describing migrants approaching the US border and blaming the Democrats for the problem, reports CNN.
"Democrats are the problem," he wrote.
"They don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our country... They can't win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!
Later at a small business event here on Tuesday, Trump declared that he had no choice but to remove children from their parents at the border.
"We want a great country. We want a country with heart. But when people come up, they have to know they can't get in," he said. "Otherwise it's never going to stop."
He also declared that the US needed to be secured, whether or not that seems politically palatable.
"You have to stand for something and you have to stand for safety and security of our country. We can't let people pour in," he said. "Maybe it's politically correct or maybe it's not. We've got to stop separation of the families, but politically correct or not, we have a country that needs security, that needs safety, that has to be protected."
Trump has repeatedly defended his immigration crackdown, reports The Washington Post.
But images of young children housed in metal cages have set off a nationwide outcry that has reached the White House.
At least 2,000 children have been separated from their parents this year as a result of the administration's policy.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has also defended the administration's controversial policy along with Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, who gave a forceful explanation of the actions, arguing that it had no choice, reports The New York Times.
"Parents who entered illegally are by definition criminals," Nielsen said on Tuesday.
"By entering our country illegally, often in dangerous circumstances, illegal immigrants have put their children at risk."
House Republicans are planning to vote on two immigration measures this week.
--IANS
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