One of the Democratic Party's biggest names has toured an immigration centre in Texas, calling it a "disturbing picture".
Senator Elizabeth Warren - often floated as a potential 2020 presidential contender - made the visit on Sunday amid the ongoing immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border.
"It's a disturbing picture ... There are children by themselves. I saw a six-month-old baby, little girls, little boys," Ms Warren told reporters.
"There are mothers with their babies, with small children. Family units are together if it's a very small child, but little girls who are 12 years old are taken away from the rest of their families and held separately. Or little boys".
"They're all lying on concrete floors in cages. There's just no other way to describe it."
Ms Warren later tweeted that she spoke with one woman from El Salvador.
"She gave a policeman a drink of water, and the gangs came after her. She sold everything she had and fled with her four-year-old son because their lives were in danger," she said.
"I believe that when a woman flees the only home she's ever known with her four-year-old son and begs the United States of America for asylum, she deserves a fair hearing."
Several other Democratic politicians also toured the detention facility in McAllen, Texas last week.
More than 2000 children were separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May after US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions announced the new "zero-tolerance" policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution.
Images of children held in fenced cages fuelled a growing chorus of condemnation from fellow Republicans, four former first ladies and national evangelical leaders.
In a stunning about-face, Mr Trump last week issued an executive order that would house parents and children together, rather than apart.
About 500 children have since been reunited with their parents, according to officials with Department of Homeland Security.
Additional reporting: AAP
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