Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is joining the chorus speaking out against the Trump administration policy of separating immigrant families at the border.

A chorus of critics - rights groups, Christian evangelicals, former USA first ladies and some within the president's own Republican party - are demanding an immediate end to the family separations.

US immigration officials say 2,342 children were separated from 2,206 parents from 5 May to 9 June amid a "zero-tolerance" crackdown on illegal immigration brought in by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions. While perusing my Facebook page last night, I came across a post from a close relative that blatantly said that a law enacted during the Bill Clinton administration is behind the separation of children from their parents today.

Trump on Tuesday defended the policy, saying "we've got to stop separation of the families", but says: "we can't let people pour in". "It did not move the needle at all", one top Republican lawmaker tells Politico.

An unidentified person yelled an obscenity at the president before he entered the meeting.

But Trump touched on many topics during the meeting, including his historic meeting with the North Korean Kim Jong Un.

That left members grasping for a happy message of unity afterwards - especially since Trump has been known to change his mind and publicly attack congressional Republicans over legislation.

And that's precisely the way President Trump wants it.

"#CHANGETHELAWS Now is the best opportunity ever for Congress to change the ridiculous and obsolete laws on immigration". But they are running up against Trump's shifting views on specifics and his determination, according to advisers, not to look soft on his signature immigration issue, the border wall.

Representative Kristi Noem said Mr Trump told politicians he "would continue to support the legislation, and that people shouldn't be anxious that he would change his mind". She said it was a light moment.

Current First Lady Melania Trump has also issued a statement on the policy.

Without Democratic support, Republicans can not muster the 60 votes needed to move forward on legislation.

"They need to remember that we face voters this fall, not Trump", said one senior Republican in the House.

In the House, Republican leaders scrambled to produce a revised version of the broader immigration bill that would keep children in detention longer than now permitted - but with their parents.

The decree does not mandate separation of parents and children, however.

Senate Republicans are also moving to block Trump's policy. Theirs is narrow legislation proposed by Sen.

Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, said Monday he would introduce a bill that would allow for faster hearings for people seeking asylum - and speedier deportation of those who don't qualify.

"While cases are pending, families should stay together", tweeted Cruz, who is in an unexpectedly tough re-election battle.

"We need you to tell him we reject this mean policy".

It was actually more of a subjective case or prosecutorial discretion. Dianne Feinstein which would overturn the family separation policy.

WCIA-TV in Champaign reported that Rodney Davis said the Department of Homeland Security "should "absolutely not" be separating children from their parents at the border".

The national outcry has roiled midterm election campaigns, emboldening Democrats while putting Republicans on the defensive.

They chanted "shame!" repeatedly at the woman who has become the frontline defender of the Trump administration's widely condemned practice of taking kids from their parents.

The senator, a vocal critic of the administration's immigration policy, added that "it would take Donald Trump basically the same amount of effort to end the heinous family separation policy as it did to pardon Joe Arpaio".

But outlook for passage is dim.

One is a hardline measure favored by conservatives, and is unlikely to pass.

And Trump isn't helping much as they try to find a solution. It seems nearly unbelievable that no one in the White House predicted what that would mean in political terms, especially in a media environment that has been so hostile to this administration.