Donald Trump dug in his heels over a controversial "zero-tolerance" immigration policy that has seen thousands of children forcibly separated from their parents at the Mexican border.

Mr Trump pointed to Europe, which he said had become a "migrant camp," and said that would not happen to the United States under his leadership.

Speaking at the White House the US president said: "The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility. You look at what's happening in Europe, and in other places, we cannot allow that to happen. Not on my watch."

Mr Trump spoke amid an uproar among Democrats and Republicans as images of children being held in wire mesh cages, and toddlers crying as they were separated from their mothers, emerged from the border.

The president said criminals were using children like a "Trojan horse" to get into America, that "a county without borders is not a country at all," and that people coming in were bringing "death and destruction".

He added: "They are thieves and murderers and so much else."