The UN rights chief today condemned the "unconscionable" separation of migrant children from their parents at the US border, as First Lady Melania Trump made a rare political plea to end the deeply controversial practice.
The "zero-tolerance" border security policy implemented by President Donald Trump's administration has sparked tears among migrant families and outrage on both sides of the political aisle.
It took on particular resonance as America celebrated Father's Day.
"The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said as he opened a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He called for Washington to immediately end the practice of "forcible separation of these children." Democrats, meanwhile, stepped up their opposition to the policy, describing it as "evil."
"She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart." The president himself later tweeted: "The Democrats should get together with their Republican counterparts and work something out on Border Security & Safety. Don't wait until after the election because you are going to lose!"
Some of Trump's fellow Republicans also have said the policy must end. The administration has decided "to separate children from their parents to try to send a message that if you cross the border with children, your children are going to be ripped away from you," Senator Susan Collins told CBS television's "Face the Nation."
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