Children arriving in the US from Central America have long faced the prospect of family separation and navigated a complex legal immigration system that can take months or years to render a decision due to a massive backlog of cases. The government separated more than 2,300 children from their parents in recent weeks in a policy that has stoked widespread outrage among both Democrats and Republicans.
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Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Ruben Garcia, director of the Annunciation House, speaks with Karla (who didn’t want her last name used) before he helps her cross the Paso Del Norte port of entry to ask for asylum for both herself and her grandchild in the US.
Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Mission, Texas
A father and son from Honduras are taken into custody by US Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border by Mission, Texas. The asylum seekers were then sent to a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing center for possible separation.
Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
McAllen, Texas
A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas. The asylum seekers had rafted across the Rio Grande from Mexico and were detained by US Border Patrol agents before being sent to a processing centre for possible separation.
Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
McAllen, Texas
A group of migrant families are intercepted by US Border Patrol agents near McAllen.
Photograph: Caller Times/Shutterstock
McAllen, Texas
A Mission police department officer and a US Border Patrol agent watch over a group of Central American asylum seekers before taking them into custody near McAllen, Texas. Local police officers often coordinate with Border Patrol agents in the apprehension of undocumented immigrants near the border. The families were then sent to a CBP processing center for possible separation.
Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
Tijuana, Mexico
Asylum seeking children from Mexico and Central America line up for their breakfast at a migrant shelter.
Photograph: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images
Tornillo, Texas
Migrant children housed in a tent encampment under the Trump administration ‘zero tolerance’ policy walk in single file.
Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters
Tornillo, Texas
The US Department of Health and Human Services’ newly constructed desert tent city for migrant children.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
McAllen, Texas
A photo made available by CBP shows people inside a processing center.
Photograph: EPA
Washington DC
Trump, accompanied by the secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen, and the vice-president, Mike Pence, displays an executive order he signed that will end the practice of separating family members who are apprehended while illegally entering the US.
Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images