Ivanka Trump shames dad's immigration policy as 'low point'

Ivanka Trump, daughter and assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump says she felt very strongly over the handling of immigrant families coming into the US. Photo / Getty Images

Ivanka Trump has broken ranks with her father's administration over its handling of immigrant families coming into the US.

The US had been separating children from their parents because children cannot be kept in adult prisons.

Trump, who is a senior adviser of her father Donald Trump, told Axios that seeing desperate mothers and their children separated was "a low point for me", especially as the daughter of an immigrant.

"I feel very strongly about that, and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children," she said in an event at the Newseum in Washington.

"Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated. I am a daughter of an immigrant. My mother grew up in Communist Czech Republic. But we are a country of laws. So you know, she came to this country legally," she said.

Ivanka Trump and mother Ivana in 1998. Photo / News Corp Australia

Trump said the US had to find a way to discourage people coming across the Mexico border.

"We have to be very careful about incentivising behaviour that puts children at risk of being trafficked, at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone," she said.

"These are not easy issues. These are incredibly difficult issues, and like the rest of the country I experience them in a very emotional way."

"Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated. I am a daughter of an immigrant," said Ivanka Trump. Photo / Getty Images

Trump also said she does not agree with her father that the news media are "the enemy of the people," as the US President says.

She said she has been the subject of reporting that she knows "not to be fully accurate" but said: "no, I do not feel that the media is the enemy of the people".

The president has broadly labelled the news media the "enemy of the people" and regularly accuses reporters of spreading "fake news" — his term for stories he dislikes.

Ms Trump also said she does not agree with her father that the news media are "the enemy of the people". Photo / Getty Images