ALMOST 4,000 children were separated from their families at the US-Mexico border during Donald Trump’s presidency, the Joe Biden administration said today.

The new US president’s family reunification task force said that 3,913 children were affected by the “zero-tolerance” policy on border crossings between July 1 2017 and the end of Mr Trump’s tenure. 

The new estimate is still well below the more than 5,500 children identified by the American Civil Liberties Union.

So far only 1,786 kids have been reunited with a parent. The parents of 1,965 others have been contacted, while the whereabouts of 391 have not been established.

Nearly 60 per cent of the children separated under Mr Trump’s policy were Guatemalans (2,270), followed by Hondurans (1,150), Salvadorans (281), Mexicans (75), Brazilians (74) and Romanians (23).

The report came after US Vice-President Kamala Harris told those thinking of travelling to the US-Mexico border not to make the “dangerous trek.”

Ms Harris, who was speaking on Monday at a news conference in Guatemala with President Alejandro Giammattei, said that the US will continue to “secure [its] border” and that those arriving at it “will be turned back.”

Left-wing senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez branded Ms Harris’s comments disappointing.

“First, seeking asylum at any US border is a 100 per cent legal method of arrival,” she said.

“Second, the US spent decades contributing to regime change and destabilisation in Latin America. We can’t help set someone’s house on fire and then blame them for fleeing.

“It would be helpful if the US would finally acknowledge its contributions to destabilisation and regime change in the region.

“Doing so can help us change US foreign policy, trade policy, climate policy, and carceral border policy to address causes of mass displacement and migration.”