Democrats expanded their campaign to spotlight the Trump Administration's forced separation of migrant children from their families at the US border, trying to compel a change of policy and gain political advantage five months before the mid-term elections.
Against a notable silence on the part of many Republicans who usually defend US President Donald Trump, Democratic lawmakers fanned out across the country, visiting a detention centre outside New York and heading to Texas to inspect facilities where children have been detained.
More than 2000 children have been removed from their parents over the past six weeks. Adults are being detained and prosecuted with their children sent to separate shelters. Previously, many illegal immigrants were allowed to remain at liberty while they awaited proceedings.
AP visited a facility where the US Border Patrol holds families. Inside the old warehouse in South Texas, hundreds of children wait away from their parents in a series of cages created by metal fencing. One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about were bottles of water, bags of chips and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets. One teenager told an advocate who visited that she was helping care for a young child she didn't know because the child's aunt was somewhere else in the facility.
