US news host and political commentator Rachel Maddow has broken down in tears while reading a breaking news report about babies and children being sent to migrant shelters.
"This has just come out from the Associated Press ... This is incredible. Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children," Ms Maddow said, before visibly tearing up.
Rachel Maddow on Tuesday night. Source: MSNBC
After several attempts to read the item about detaining young migrants on the US-Mexico border, Ms Maddow could not go on and handed it over to another presenter.
She later apologised over a series of tweets and shared the AP story that she was unable to read.
The story talked about "tender age" shelters in South Texas with "play rooms of crying preschool-age children".
Ms Maddow presents on the left-leaning MSNBC and has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration.
But Trump is facing intense criticism from all sides of politics over the forced separation of migrant children from their parents.
Nearly 2000 children were separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May after Attorney-General Jeff Sessions announced the new "zero-tolerance" policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution.
Prior procedure had limited prosecution for many family entrants, in part because regulations prohibit detaining children with their parents since the children are not charged with a crime and the parents are.
New images of children held in fenced cages fuelled a growing chorus of condemnation from fellow Republicans, four former first ladies and national evangelical leaders.
Additional reporting: AAP
