Trump pictured discussing migrant family separations with room full of white men

Critics hit out at US president for not having a more diverse team to consult

Joe Kennedy III, US Representative for Massachusetts and grand-nephew of President John F. Kennedy, lambasted the image (REUTERS)

An image of Donald Trump discussing his administration's widely condemned policy of separating families at the Mexican border with a table of middle-aged white men has been criticised for its lack of diversity.

The photo, which appears to show no people of colour or women sat around the table, was taken at a meeting with members of Congress on Wednesday.

It sparked criticism on social media – with people condemning the US president for not having a more diverse team to consult on the controversial issue of family separation.

“We are keeping families together, but we have to keep our borders strong,” Mr Trump said, according to CBS reporter Mark Knoller, who shared the image.

Joe Kennedy III, the representative for Massachusetts and grand-nephew of John F Kennedy, urged Mr Trump to consult someone of a different ethnicity before carrying out immigration reform.

“You might not know this about me, but I’m a white guy. And as a white guy, I would encourage Donald Trump and his fellow GOP white guys to consult a not-white-guy in their efforts to enact comprehensive immigration reform in less than 24 hours,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Might just be my cautious side but it feels like there could be unforeseen consequences like entire families being indefinitely locked in cages," he added.

The former president of Planned Parenthood, Lauren Dobson-Hughes, said “no good ever comes from a room full of white men,” quoting Elmira Bayrasli, co-founder of Foreign Policy Interrupted, which strives to tackle gender disparity in the field.

“Look at this table: All White Men. Only one woman lawmaker present, not pictured,” RealClearPolitics political reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns said.

Republican Representative Liz Cheney – who is not pictured – was the only female member of Congress present at the table.

Other photos of the meeting showed Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House senior advisor, standing close by but not at the table.

The Trump administration was fiercely criticised last year after the president signed an abortion order surrounded by men.

The new “zero tolerance” immigration policy of splitting families at the US-Mexico border has been condemned by Democratic and Republican politicians – with many foreign leaders also expressing consternation and outrage.

Between 5 May and 9 June of this year, more than 2,000 children were separated under the new “zero tolerance” policy, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

After consistently defending the policy, Mr Trump finally bowed to pressure and signed an order overturning the practice.

On Wednesday, the president said the zero-tolerance policy would continue but added he “didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated.”

The statement read: “It is also the policy of this administration to maintain family unity, including by detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.”

The president, who accused immigrants of “infesting” the country a day earlier, said the executive order was “about keeping families together, while at the same time being sure that we have a very powerful, very strong border.”

Mr Trump denied allegations he was performing a U-turn on his strict immigration stance – telling reporters at the signing the southern border was “just as tough” as before.

While signing the document, he said there is still zero tolerance for families crossing the border illegally.

In May, the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced the “zero tolerance” policy, which refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution.

Since then, the Trump administration has charged every adult caught crossing the border illegally entering the US at the Mexican border with federal crimes, instead of referring those with children mainly to immigration courts in the way that former administrations did.

Adult immigrants facing charges are housed separately from their children – resulting in the separation of parents from children reportedly as young as eight-months-old.

On Sunday, Democratic legislators joined hundreds of protesters in New Jersey and Texas to demonstrate outside immigration detention facilities for young people.