NICOLA Sturgeon has condemned "horrifying" video footage of a young child separated from their family on America's border.

The first minister was the latest world leader to join a chorus of protest at the Trump administration's policy of removing minors from parents who try to enter the country illegally.

Some 2000 children have been separated under the policy with even Mr Trump's wife, Melania, signalling her unhappiness.

Ms Sturgeon's remarks were provoked by a video published by Sky News on which a baby cries for her daddy. 


Veteran Republican John McCain also condemned the "zero tolerance' policy on Monday, making a break in the ranks of the Mr Trump's party.

Mr McCain tweeted: "The administration’s current family separation policy is an affront to the decency of the American people, and contrary to principles and values upon which our nation was founded,” . “The administration has the power to rescind this policy. It should do so now.”

The Herald: US Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain outside 10 Downing Street

John McCain

The family separations have sparked a national outcry and emerged as a searing test of how far Americans are willing to go in their efforts to enforce immigration and border control.

The White House itself has offered conflicting accounts of the policy and the reasons behind it. Officials have alternately — and falsely — blamed Democrats for it, denied there is a separation policy or suggested the policy is intended as a deterrent to reduce illegal immigration.

As the administration founders, congressional Republicans have done what they have often done in other high-profile spasms of controversies involving President Donald Trump, reported The Herald's US sister paper on the border, The Arizona Republic 

Martha McSally, a Republican representative for Arizona whose district includes part of the border with Mexico, she doesn't like the separation tactics, but doesn't find fault with the Trump administration."We need to enforce our laws in a consistent and humane manner and (Homeland Security) should not have to choose between enforcing the law and keeping children with their parents," she said.

McCain and Flake, his fellow senator for Arizona, are Republicans who have cast themselves as the conscience of their party as their congressional careers wind down. McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer; Flake is not seeking re-election this year.

Mr Flake said: "Ensuring the safety and security of young children is a longstanding priority of the American legal system. In asylum cases, it is especially important to keep families together when neither the child nor the parent has violated any laws."

With reporting from Ronald J. Hansen and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez of the Arizona Republic