Washington (CNN) Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said Tuesday that she thinks President Donald Trump will reinstate the practice of separating families at the southern border despite his public denials that he is looking to do so.

"I believe that he intends to restart a program that is vicious, that is ineffective, and that is long-term harmful not only to the children and families that he separates, but to the core of who we are as Americans," Abrams said.

She also accused him of being xenophobic, specifically toward people of color.

"I believe that he is misleading the American public as he often does -- in part because he has no real plan other than to push forward his, I think, very strong xenophobia that is unfortunately directed largely at South America and Central America, but I think at large is directed at people of color," she added.

Trump denied earlier on Tuesday that his administration is looking to resume the separation of parents and children at the US-Mexico border. On Monday, senior administration officials told CNN's Jake Tapper that in the last four months or so, the President had been pushing then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to enforce a stricter and more widespread "zero-tolerance" immigration policy.

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