Story highlights Kelly also insisted DACA recipients were safe

He said he would hold a conference on improving the situation in Central America

Washington (CNN) US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly on Wednesday assured Senate Democrats he doesn't intend to separate mothers and children at the border -- apparently walking back an earlier statement he made that such a policy could deter people from entering the country illegally.

Kelly met with Senate Democrats Wednesday afternoon for more than an hour on Capitol Hill to discuss the administration's immigration policy, a meeting that some members left in "frustration" but others called "positive." Kelly also said he intends to hold a conference this spring on improving conditions in Central America, and discussed the status of deferred action recipients in the wide-ranging meeting.

In response to a question from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Kelly said that DHS wouldn't be separating mothers and children at the border unless there was an extenuating reason, such as illness, according to several Democrats who attended the meeting.

Kelly later told CNN that characterization was fair, "unless there is some other consideration." He denied that he had been considering a policy to separate families.

"I don't think I have said that," Kelly said. "Wolf Blitzer first asked me about this and I said everything's on the table, we might under certain circumstances do that, but I don't think I've ever said as a deterrent or something like that."

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