About 2,000 children have been forcibly separated from their families at the border since Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy started

Administration for Children and Families at the US Department of Health and Human Services

• Nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their parents so far, under the Trump administration's new "zero tolerance" policy.
• The policy mandates that every person who illegally crosses the US-Mexico border be criminally prosecuted, therefore children must be separated when the parents are taken to jail.
• The tally includes all families separated between April 19 through May 31.

The Trump administration says almost 2,000 children have been separated from their families at the border over a six-week period under a policy cracking down on illegal entry.

The tally is from April 19 through May 31. In early May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Department of Homeland Security officials would refer all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. He says the children must be separated from their families because they can't go to jail with them.

The policy has been widely criticized by church groups, politicians and children's advocates who say it is inhumane.

Homeland Security figures obtained by The Associated Press show that 1,995 minors were separated from 1,940 adults. The figures did not break down the separations by age.

Public outrage has reached a boiling point in recent days over the new policy, as stories of traumatized children and frantic parents have spread throughout the national media.

A number of Trump administration officials - including President Donald Trump himself - have taken to the media to argue that separating migrant children from their parents is merely "following laws," which they have falsely blamed Democrats for creating.

"I hate the children being taken away," Trump told reporters on the White House lawn on Friday, and added that his Attorney General Jeff Sessions was merely enforcing pre-existing laws by implementing the zero tolerance policy.

But the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy is just that: a policy. No part of US immigration law specifically orders that families must be split up at the border, and the policy was created and implemented by the Trump administration alone.