New York Mayor surprised that migrant children secretly sent to his city

New York: A nine-month-old baby, traumatized children, many with lice, bedbugs or contagious diseases: New York's mayor was shocked Wednesday that at least 239 minors arrived incognito after being separated from parents on the Mexican border.

While Donald Trump signed the end of a policy of separation of families at the border that provoked outrage in the United States and abroad, Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio went into a reception center for migrant children in Harlem, where a television crew had filmed the previous night some girls arriving secretly, apparently separated from their parents at the border.

De Blasio emerged saying he was "shocked to learn" how many children separated from their parents had been sent to New York, explaining that this single centre in Harlem had received 239 children without the knowledge of city authorities.

"How is it possible that none of us knew that there (were) 239 kids right here in our city?" he said. "How is the federal government holding back that information from the people of this city and holding back the help that these kids could need?"

"The mental health issues alone, they made clear to us, are very real; very painful," De Blasio stressed.

He is off to join other US mayors Thursday in Texas to visit a childcare centre and denounce the migration policy of the Trump administration.