Immigrants' rights advocates rallied Thursday near the White House to protest against US President Joe Biden's administration recently proposing tough restrictions on asylum seekers, amid reports of a potential return of detentions of migrant families at the border.

"It is worse because he came into office using the slogan that he was going to abolish detention, that he was going to close the detention centers. And what we're seeing is that he's using it again to get reelected," a resident from El Salvador told AFP.

She added: "I didn't have too many expectations because it was actually under the Obama administration, when he (Joe Biden, ed) was his vice president, that I think the number of deportations was the highest. So it's not something that surprises me honestly."

Another said: "He criticized Donald Trump so much and he is doing the same thing. The same because before he came to power he promised too many things. And they just expect to get into office and send everything to the trash to do the same thing Donald Trump did."

"We were separated. They put my husband someplace else and me and my son someplace else. The conditions are deplorable because one arrives and there is no space and no mattress, that is, you have to settle wherever you can with your child. Everything smells bad, the food is inedible, so it is a terrible experience that traumatized my son as much as it did me."