Sessions: Child migrant camps ‘not like Nazi concentration camps’
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceUS Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rejected claims US holding centres for child migrants separated from parents are like Nazi concentration camps.
America's top law official told Fox News the "zero tolerance" policy was about enforcing border security.
President Donald Trump is meeting Republican lawmakers later to discuss a bill that proposes to end the policy.
US immigration officials say 2,342 children have been separated from 2,206 parents from 5 May to 9 June.
- Why the US is separating migrant children from their parents
- Who made the decision?
- Fenced enclosures hold migrant children
Mr Sessions was asked in Monday night's interview on Fox News about a tweet by former CIA Director Michael Hayden likening what happened at Auschwitz concentration camp, where millions of Jews and other minorities were killed, to the separation of undocumented immigrant families at the US border.
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceThe Department of Justice chief said: "Well, it's a real exaggeration, of course.
"In Nazi Germany, they were keeping the Jews from leaving the country."
Mr Sessions said: "Fundamentally, we are enforcing the law. Hopefully people will get the message and not break across the border unlawfully."
Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham said the detention centres were "essentially summer camps" for migrant children.
US First Lady Melania Trump and four of her predecessors are among critics of the policy.
Laura Bush said the detention centres reminded her of internment camps where Japanese-Americans were held during the Second World War.
What is the policy?
Under the "zero-tolerance" crackdown that the Trump administration rolled out in May, all border crossers - including first-time offenders - are criminally charged and jailed pending a court appearance.
Migrant children are not permitted to be incarcerated with their parents, and are kept in separate facilities maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Under previous US administrations, undocumented immigrants caught crossing the border for the first time tended to be issued with court summons for a later date.
But the Trump administration says that approach amounted to "catch and release" because many of the migrants never showed up to court.
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceThe Trump administration has been disputing the terminology used to describe its immigration crackdown.
The Department of Homeland Security has framed it as an "initiative" rather than "a policy".
It characterises the holding centres where children have been pictured behind metal chain-link enclosures as "shelters" instead of "cages".
Dictionary.com has reported a 279% increase in people searching for the word "cage" over the last day or so.
More on US immigration
Media playback is unsupported on your device- Trump's blame game on separating families
- Do other countries separate migrant families?
- WATCH: Where do undocumented US migrants live?
Was your family split up after entering the US? Are any of your family members currently being detained and kept apart? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
- WhatsApp: +44 7555 173285
- Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay
- Text an SMS or MMS to 61124 or +44 7624 800 100
- Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy
Or use the form below
Your contact details Name (optional) Your E-mail address (required) Town & Country (optional) Your telephone number (optional) Comments (required)
If you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.
Terms and conditions
The BBC's Privacy Policy
