Shabana Mahmood has defended her plans for forced deportation of children under her new asylum rules.
The home secretary has said the government is consulting on precisely how the removal of families with children will work.
Politics Live: UK to send more fighter jets to the Middle East
Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News on Thursday, Ms Mahmood said it was important to "enforce" the law.
She said: "This is about immigration enforcement and it's about being in a process where you are able to enforce your rules.
"If you don't do that, the flip side is you just end up picking up the tab for hundreds of families, hundreds of thousands of pounds per family every single year.
"And it is the taxpayer in the end that's paying the price of that."
The cabinet minister said there is "no easy solution" to cutting illegal immigration but "if you're going to have rules, then you better enforce them".
She added: "Otherwise you might as well say to everybody, there's no rules enforced at all. It's an open border situation. And I don't think that has public support either."
Read More:
Politics of migration 'difficult' for Labour, Mahmood says
UK's first visa ban in asylum crackdown
However she insisted that where children were concerned, this would be done "humanely".
"We already have arrangements in this country, legal arrangements about how we would handle children, whether that's in a school setting, whether that's with the police, whether that's in... other parts of public service.
"So, there are already well-used rules about the way that we approach the handling of children. And, of course, we would want to do this as humanely and as effectively as possible."
In a speech setting out immigration reforms today, Ms Mahmood said failed asylum seeker families will be offered £10,000 per person up to a max of £40,000 to leave the UK and if they don't voluntarily leave, they will be deported.
She said a similar model in Denmark had been a "great success" and that this would reduce the cost to the taxpayer of housing asylum seekers in hotels.
In her speech she said: "For too long, families who have failed their claims have known that we are not enforcing our rules, which created a perverse incentive to make a channel crossing with children in a small boats."
(c) Sky News 2026: Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood defends plans to deport asylum seeker children
Leak from UK security meeting on Trump's war request branded 'utterly destructive'
John Prescott's son joins Greens
Councils want courts to hand out bigger fines for fly-tipping
Defence secretary twice declines to rule out Britain joining strikes on Iran
15 activists arrested over 'mass shoplifting campaign' plot
The Royal Navy's destroyer will arrive too late for Cyprus - the French are already here
Having the courage to say no but the canniness to make people hear yes could be useful lesson for PM
Woman jailed for smuggling heroin and 'terrifying' arsenal of guns into UK
