The Trump administration is poised to exit the United Nations' Human Rights Council.

Officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the US's ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, would announce the exit from the council on Tuesday.

On Monday, the council's chief described the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy as "government-sanctioned child abuse."

The Trump administration is poised to announce its departure from the United Nations' main human-rights body in its latest withdrawal from an international institution.

Officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the US's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, would deliver the verdict on membership in the UN Human Rights Council in a joint appearance at the State Department on Tuesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview the decision.

Haley threatened the pullout last year, citing longstanding US complaints that the council is biased against Israel. But on Monday, the UN's human-rights chief denounced the Trump administration for separating migrant children from their parents.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, said in remarks to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy was "government-sanctioned child abuse." The policy has resulted in almost 2,000 children being separated from their families at the US-Mexico border over six weeks.

"The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable," he said.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has described the policy as a deterrence measure, saying last month: "If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally."

Sessions on Monday addressed comparisons between the policy and Nazi Germany, saying, "It's a real exaggeration."

Photos and audio of wailing children at migrant detention centers have emerged, portraying a grim environment that experts say can cause permanent psychological damage to those there.