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A US border security chief says he has temporarily stopped launching criminal prosecutions of migrants who illegally enter the country with children.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told reporters in Texas the prosecution referrals were suspended last week.
He said it followed an order last week by President Donald Trump calling for an end to migrant family separations.
But Mr Trump had suggested the families would instead be detained together.
Commissioner McAleenan's guidance to his agents effectively suspends the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy.
It paves the way for US immigration enforcement to revert largely to the approach under the Obama administration.
US border agents who stop undocumented adult migrants accompanied by children will hand them a court summons and allow them to go on their way, rather than hold them in a detention facility.
President Trump repeatedly lamented this "catch and release" policy before his administration began criminally prosecuting adult migrants and holding their children separately to deter border crossings.
On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the reality is that the US does not have the space to hold all the undocumented families coming across the US-Mexico border.
"We're not changing the policy," she told reporters. "We're simply out of resources."
The Pentagon confirmed on Monday that two Texas military bases will be used as temporary camps to house the immigrants.
But Defence Secretary Jim Mattis did not specify whether the facilities - Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base - would house migrant families together.