America’s top United Nations official has lashed out at the international body's criticism of the US breaking up migrant families.

Noting that “several hundred children have been separated from their families” as the Trump administration has cracked down on border crossings, United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani warned that “there is nothing normal about detaining children”.

“The US should immediately halt this practice of separating families”, Ms Shamdasani said, adding that “Detention is never in the interest of the child and always constitutes a child rights violation”.

​In a stinging rebuke, America’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley accused the international body of hypocrisy for assailing America “while it ignores the reprehensible human rights records of several members of its own Human Rights Council”. She noted that America furnishes more humanitarian assistance than other countries.

“We will remain a generous country, but we are also a sovereign country, with laws that decide how best to control our borders and protect our people”, Ms Haley said in a statement. “Neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders”.

While Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for family separations at the border, there is no law - Democrat-passed or otherwise - that requires such separations.

Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Show all 14 1 /14 Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Immigrant children, many of whom are separated form their parents, are housed in Texas' tent city Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented migrants ride on the top of a freight train referred to as the beast, or La Bestia Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A cage inside a US Customs and Border Protection detention facility in Texas Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy All new agents must complete a months-long training course at the New Mexico facility before assuming their posts at Border Patrol stations, mostly along the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence A group of young men walk along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border fence in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence in the US Man looks through US-Mexico border fence into the US in Tijuana, Mexico Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence US Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol on in La Joya, Texas Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy US Border Patrol instructor yells at trainees after their initial arrival to the academy Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Memorial service in Guatemala Families attend a memorial service for two boys who were kidnapped and killed in San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Crime drives emigration from Guatemala to the United States, as families seek refuge from the danger Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Arrests on the border Undocumented immigrants comfort each other after being caught by Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Detention holding facility A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the US Border Patrol Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican farm workers Mexican migrant workers harvest organic parsley at Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colorado Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican family in Arizona A Mexican immigrant family sits in the living room of their rented home in Tuscon, Arizona. The family that Arizona's new tough immigrant law had created a climate of fear in the immigrant community. Getty

Immigration advocates have countered by pointing to the Trump administration’s stringent new “zero tolerance” policy directing authorities to prosecute all instances of illegal border crossings. In her remarks, Ms Shamdasani said immigration violations should not carry harsh penalties.

“Entry into a country without the right papers should at most be an administrative offence”, Ms Shamdasani said.

Administration officials have also lambasted a caravan of Central American asylum-seekers that recently arrived at the Mexican border, saying it pointed to flaws in America’s immigration laws and warning of prosecutions for fraud. Ms Shamdasani noted that family separations were also occurring among asylum-seekers, who have a legal right to present their claims.

Migrant 'caravan' gathers at the US-Mexico border

The Trump administration has repeatedly been at odds with the United Nations, particularly over Mr Trump’s controversial decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to move the US embassy there.

As the UN prepared to overwhelmingly pass a resolution denouncing the move, both Ms Haley and Mr Trump warned that America might retaliate by cutting off aid.