Washington (CNN) The separation of undocumented families under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy is the result of a "deliberate" process that ultimately amounted to "official kidnapping and child abuse," Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday.

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Connecticut Democrat was part of Tuesday's hearing on the administration's "zero tolerance" policy, which resulted in children being separated from their parents at the southern border.

With more than 500 children still separated despite a court-ordered deadline to reunite them by last Thursday, the focus of Tuesday's hearing was family separation. Blumenthal said he was outraged by what he heard.

"From the day that I went to the border, which was six weeks ago, there has been no plan, no system to reunite these children," Blumenthal told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."

"It amounts to official kidnapping and child abuse."

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