First Lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to the US-Mexican border Thursday, as her husband's administration seeks to quell a firestorm over migrant family separations. President Donald Trump first announced the trip by his wife, who was touring a non-profit social services center for migrant children, before heading to a customs and border patrol processing center, according to a statement from her office.

The first lady landed in McAllen, Texas under a heavy downpour, her motorcade driving through deep water as it headed for the Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter, a federally-funded facility that houses around 60 children from Honduras and El Salvador, ages five to 17.

Her visit comes a day after Trump, in a stunning about-face, took executive action to end the practice of separating migrant families at the border, the result of a "zero tolerance" policy towards illegal border crossers.

Images and recordings of wailing children detained in cage-like enclosures has ignited global outrage, and Melania Trump herself had called for a political compromise to end the separations.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018