U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday ordering the end of a policy, known as "catch and release," in which illegal immigrants are released from detention while awaiting a court hearing on their status.

As part of the memo, Trump asked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to produce a list of military facilities that could be used to detain illegal immigrants.

The President previously complained about catch-and-release policies and family based migration, in which immigrants sponsor their relatives to join them in the U.S.

Trump also noted he'd been criticized for saying in his campaign kickoff speech that Mexico was sending rapists across the border. But he says that "yesterday it came out" that during "this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before."

It's unclear what he was referring to, but a White House spokesman pointed to past reports of women being raped by smugglers.

Trump announced this week that he was requesting the deployment of the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to fight illegal immigration and drug smuggling.