Donald Trump autographed photos of murder victims before comparing one to the actor Tom Selleck at a ceremony supposed to honour Americans "killed by criminal illegal aliens".

The president hosted the live-streamed event after coming under intense pressure over his immigration policy that has separated at least 2,000 children from their parents at the border.

Standing next to the mothers and fathers of those he called "American victims of illegal immigration", Mr Trump claimed US laws on the issue were the "weakest in the history of the world".

The event was immediately condemned as "tacky", "disgusting" and "fear-mongering about brown people", while many of his statements were quickly exposed as false or misleading.

Others questioned why victim photos all appeared to bear the president's signature and suggested the families - dubbed "Angel families" by the president - were being "used".

He invited several of them to the podium to describe the deaths of their loved ones in detail.

Referring to one victim with a moustache, Mr Trump held up the photo and said: "This is Tom Selleck, except better looking. Right? Better looking."

Claiming that their deaths had been ignored by the media, he said: "These are the stories that democrats and people that are weak on immigration don't want to discuss, hear, see or talk about.

"They don't talk about the death and destruction caused by people who shouldn't be here."

Mr Trump also praised several immigration law enforcement officers for their bravery before joking they were "good looking people".

During his speech, the president rejected studies suggesting that foreign immigrants commit crime at a lower rate than the rest of the US population.

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"You hear that they're better people than our citizens," Mr Trump said. "It's not true."

And while he accurately quoted statistics from a 2011 government study, including that there had been an estimated 25,000 arrests of illegal immigrants for homicide, he did not mention that it covered a 55-year period since 1955.