US GOVERNMENT press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stunned reporters at a briefing on Thursday after claiming the detention of 1,500 migrant children was “very biblical.”

She made the comment after heated exchanges while she was trying to justify Washington’s practice of separating children from their parents when they try and cross the border into the US.

Ms Sanders was fielding questions after MSNBC broadcast footage of a Texas detention facility which showed children who had been held there for months without seeing their parents.

MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff said they were being effectively held in a prison, explaining that he was told: “Can you try to smile at these kids, because it’s weird to see people from the outside” when he visited.

Ms Sanders defended the policy claiming “it is very biblical to enforce the law.” 

In a series of exchanges, reporters explained there is no law that forces the government to separate children from their parents and that no one was forcing them to be held captive.

But Ms Sanders remained undeterred and insisted they were holding the children “because it’s the law and that’s what the law states.”