Illegal immigrants to be apprehended & would not be released: Trump

President Donald Trump has said illegal immigrants trying to enter the United States would now be apprehended at the border and, unlike the current practice, would no longer be released.

Announcing a significant change in the current catch-and-release policy for illegal immigrants, Trump said Thursday these illegal immigrants would be released only after a US court pronounces its judgement on their asylum application. If negative, they would be deported to their original country.

"We are not releasing them into our country any longer. They will wait for long periods of time. We're putting up massive cities of tents; the military is helping us incredibly well," Trump said in a major policy speech on illegal immigrants.

The policy speech days ahead of the crucial midterm poll comes because of a caravan, estimated to be comprising between 5,000-7,000 people, from three Latin American countries, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Trump has deployed military at the Southwestern border to stop them.

"At this very moment, a large well-organised caravan of migrants are marching towards our southern border. Some people call it an invasion. It's like an invasion. They have violently overrun the Mexican border. You saw that two days ago," he said.

Trump said such caravans would not be allowed and they should turn back as they were "wasting their time", suggesting they should apply to come into the country. "We hope nothing happens, but if it does, we are totally prepared," he added.

Observing that the current policy of catch-and-release is a laughing stock all over the world, Trump vowed that he would not allow them any longer. "We're not allowing them in and we're not releasing and we're not doing any of the things that were done for so many years that really are terrible for our country."