Migrant children: Trump speaks of plan to halt separations
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceUS President Donald Trump has promised action to "keep families together" amid fury over separations of undocumented child migrants from adults.
"I'll be signing something in a little while that's going to do that," he told reporters at the White House.
The Department of Homeland Security has reportedly drafted an executive order to stop the policy, though its wording and scope is unclear.
Mr Trump earlier urged lawmakers to pass a bill ending family separations.
The Republican president also wants immigration laws to be toughened under any such legislation.
- Who has said what about US border crisis
- What is Trump's family-separation endgame?
- Who decided to take the children away?
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceMr Trump added that he was postponing the bipartisan congressional picnic scheduled for Thursday "because it didn't feel right to me".
Earlier, Republican congressional leader Paul Ryan said the House of Representatives will vote on Thursday "on legislation to keep families together".
"We do not want children taken away from their parents," he said at a news conference on Capitol Hill. "We can enforce our immigration laws without breaking families apart."
He did not immediately provide details of the bill, but said that it resolves the issue of so-called Dreamers, undocumented adult migrants who entered the US as children, "in a very elegant way".
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceTrump backs down
Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington
For days administration officials have insisted they were simply following the law as written and their "zero tolerance" policy for illegal border crossings meant they "have to take the children away", in the president's words.
Critics have countered that Mr Trump unilaterally created the situation that produced the heart-rending accounts of children separated from their parents, and he could unilaterally fix it.
By taking executive action, the president is effectively acknowledging they were correct.
Now the fight will probably move to the courts, with legal challenges to the administration's decision to hold detained families together while their immigration status is adjudicated.
That is more politically hospitable ground for Republicans, who already face challenging mid-term congressional elections.
This move should also deal a final blow to hopes for any kind of comprehensive immigration reform from Congress this year.
The odds always seemed long, even with this recent burst of urgency, but Republicans couldn't agree amongst themselves, let along reach the consensus with Democrats needed for passage in the Senate.
Instead, the future of immigration reform will hinge on the results of November's elections and which party controls Congress when the dust settles.
Read more of Anthony Zurcher's analysis
Why the uproar?
In April, the US attorney general announced a "zero-tolerance" policy to criminally charge and jail undocumented border crossers.
As children cannot legally be jailed with their parents, they are kept in separate facilities.
US immigration officials say 2,342 children were separated from 2,206 parents between 5 May and 9 June.
Media playback is unsupported on your devicePictures of dozens of children sleeping in fenced enclosures and audio of crying children emerged in recent days, provoking the widespread criticism.
Babies and toddlers have been sent to three "tender age" shelters maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Associated Press news agency reports.
Under previous US administrations, immigrants caught crossing the border for the first time tended to be issued with court summonses and released.
What has international reaction been?
There has been global outrage at the US policy of separating migrant families at its border with Mexico.
The UK and Canadian prime ministers, Theresa May and Justin Trudeau, both called it "wrong".
Pope Francis said he supported US Catholic bishops who called it "immoral".
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who in the past has praised Mr Trump's policy of curbing immigration, told French TV that she disagreed with splitting children from parents.
On Tuesday Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso said the practice was "cruel and inhuman".
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceMore on child migrants crisis
- Who decided to take the children away?
- Fenced enclosures hold migrant children
- Trump's blame game on separating families
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