WikiLeaks this week published a database identifying more than 9,000 current and former employees of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, amid mounting criticism of the agency's separation of migrant families.

The organization, founded by hacker Julian Assange, claimed the searchable database, named 'ICE Patrol', would 'increase accountability' and serve as an 'important public resource'.

It contains information and photos gleaned from the LinkedIn accounts of ICE employees from bosses to interns, and is searchable by location, job title, school attended and field of study.

The organization, founded by hacker Julian Assange, (seen left at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on May 19, 2017) claimed the searchable database would 'increase accountability'. It was obtained by Brooklyn-based artist Sam Lavigne (pictured in an undated photo)

WikiLeaks obtained the data from Sam Lavigne, a Brooklyn-based artist who claims to be a part-time professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the New School's Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.

Lavigne first tried to publish the database on Tuesday using GitHub, an online software development platform, but this was taken down, according to the Washington Post. At the time it contained information from around 1,500 staff.

WikiLeaks justified Thursday's data dump in a public statement, which mentioned the separation of children at the border by ICE agents.

'This information is an important public resource for understanding ICE programs and increasing accountability, especially in light of the extreme actions taken by ICE lately, such as the separation of children and parents at the US border,' it said.

President Trump has now signed an executive order bringing a halt to separations, although it is still not clear what will happen to the nearly 2,000 children who are still in limbo without their parents.

The move by WikiLeaks is the latest in a series of incidents targeting people connected with Trump's immigration policy. Pictured: A file photo of an ICE employee

Lavigne also blogged about his project in a now-deleted post on Medium, in which he referred to the agency's 'inhuman surveillance and detention efforts' and claimed the employee information would be of use to 'researchers, journalists and activists'.

The move by WikiLeaks - which is most notorious for dumping confidential information like Hillary Clinton's emails during the 2016 election - is the latest in a series of incidents targeting people connected with Trump's immigration policy.

On Wednesday, ICE employees in Portland, Oregon, had to be escorted out of their office after hundreds of protesters set up camps outside its doors for an 'all-night vigil'.

That same day, a left-wing news website published what it claimed to be White House aide Stephen Miller's phone number.

And also on Wednesday, actor Peter Fonda turned his anger directly on the Trump family, claiming Barron Trump should be ripped from his mother's arms and put 'in a cage with pedophiles' in an expletive-laden rant about the border crisis. He later apologized.

On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen decided to leave a Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C., after protesters began shouting 'shame'.