♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: In the summer of 2017, the Trump administration quietly began a controversial program.

>> There were hundreds and hundreds of little children who had been taken from their parents.

While everyone's waiting to see whether they're going to enact a policy, they were doing it anyway.

>> NARRATOR: One year later, it shocked the world.

>> MARTIN SMITH: How can you not condemn that?

>> I've seen a lot of terrible things in my 34 years, but we have to address the border.

>> NARRATOR: Under pressure, the president reversed course.

>> We're going to keep families together... >> NARRATOR: Tonight on "Frontline," correspondent Martin Smith with an investigation that reaches from Central America to Washington, DC.

The policy decisions through two presidencies.

>> There's no pleasing any side.

I think on the right, your enforcement is never strong enough, and on the left, you're never being humanitarian enough.

>> NARRATOR: And the impact on children and families.

>> There's a very high likelihood a lot of these parents are never going to see their kids again.

>> NARRATOR: Tonight, "Separated: Children at the Border."

(dogs barking) (clanging) ♪ ♪ >> SMITH: The border spans over 1,900 miles.

Nearly 700 of them have a wall or a fence.

Where there are gaps, aerostat blimps surveil from above.

(radio chatter) Since 9/11, security is up.

The number of Border Patrol agents has doubled to some 20,000.

>> These two are probably the guides for a larger group.

Minors come up north but then went south.

>> SMITH: In mid-June, a young woman and her son from El Salvador took a raft across the Rio Grande into southern Texas.

>> That one looks pretty young... >> Yeah, but they've been trying all day to... >> SMITH: After several hours of wandering in the hot sun looking for help, they found some Border Patrol agents and asked for asylum.

After 24 hours in a holding cell, they were released.

(people talking in background) I met them at this shelter in McAllen, Texas, Maritza Amaya and her nine-month-old son Wilfredo.

De donde viene?

>> De El Salvador.

>> SMITH: De El Salvador.

They crossed the border at a time when many families were being separated.

So tell us your story about why you came at this time?

(speaking Spanish): >> SMITH: Were you aware of the risks of being separated from your child when you came?

>> No.

>> SMITH: The day I met Maritza happened to be the same day President Trump issued his executive order halting more separations.

Families would be allowed to remain together while their asylum claims were considered.

And so what is this?

Is it uncomfortable?

>> SMITH: In the meantime, Maritza wears an ankle bracelet that allows the government to track her movements.

Are you scared now, being here?

(translator): (Maritza speaking): (baby crying in background) >> SMITH: This shelter was founded in 2014 by Sister Norma Pimentel.

I asked her about the impact of Trump's separation policy on the families she had seen at her shelter.

(conversing in Spanish) >> They're concerned.

They're worried.

"Sister, what's happening to the children?"

They saw other parents' children taken away from them.

And they would be praying, "Please, not my child.

Please, God, don't let them take my child."

>> SMITH: The president says that the people that are coming in can be criminals, they can be very bad people.

Is that your experience?

>> I believe that just because you're an immigrant doesn't automatically make you a criminal.

Immigrants must be taken care of as immigrants, families who are fleeing violence, who need protection, and we need to understand the reason why they're here.

>> The dilemma is that if you're weak, if you're really, really pathetically weak, the country's gonna be overrun with millions of people, and if you're strong, then you don't have any heart.

That's a tough dilemma.

We're keeping families together but we have to keep our borders strong.

We will be overrun with crime and with people that should not be in our country.

(announcement on loudspeaker) (speaking Spanish) >> SMITH: Later that night, Maritza and Wilfredo waited for a bus to take them on a two-day journey to be reunited with a brother living in Virginia.

On the evening news, the signing of Trump's executive order.

>> It's been going on for 60 years.

60 years.

Nobody's taken care of it.

Nobody's had the political courage to take care of it, but we're going to take care of it.

So we're keeping families together, at the same time, it continues to be zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally.

>> SMITH: While Maritza and Wilfredo may be denied asylum, they are still together.

More than 2,000 other families were not.

(man speaking Spanish) A few days later, I traveled to El Salvador, Central America, to visit a father who had been separated from his six-year-old child after crossing into the U.S. illegally.

I found him, Arnovis Guidos Portillo, in a tiny village three hours outside the capital.

It had been one month since he'd seen his daughter Meybelin.

(phone dialing) He was calling a shelter in Arizona where she was being held.

(Arnovis speaking Spanish): (woman on other end of phone): >> Oh, okay.

>> SMITH: What would you like to say to her right now?

Este es mi casa.

>> SMITH: Arnovis gave me a tour of his one-room home.

>> SMITH: Do you have pictures of her?

(rooster crowing) (laughter) (man speaking Spanish) >> SMITH: Like Maritza, Arnovis and his daughter left fleeing violence.

>> SMITH: Arnovis says he got death threats after getting into an argument with the brother of a local gang leader.

(Arnovis speaking): >> SMITH: The journey north can be torturous.

Those from the humblest origins have to navigate many miles on foot.

>> You run the gauntlet of risk to come here.

Traveling for migrants is certainly not safe.

And you can... subject to horrendous crimes on your journey and be kidnapped and raped and, in certain cases, killed.

>> SMITH: Their first goal is to reach Mexico, and then the Beast-- a freight train that has carried hundreds of thousands of migrants up to the U.S. border.

It's a challenge simply getting on board.

(train horn blares) Sonia Nazario has ridden the train.

>> The Central Americans are crossing Mexico illegally, so they can't get on at the train station.

They have to do this as the train is moving.

(train clanging on tracks) And for a lot of the kids, I would see that the first rung of the ladder would be at their waist or even higher.

So children would lose legs and arms and be killed by these freight trains trying to get on and off them.

(shouting) There were beautiful moments on the train where, you know, everyone's singing to try to stay awake and we would be in a cloud of a million fireflies, these mystical moments.

And for a lot of children, it is also an adventure.

That's what they view it as until the first horrible thing happens.

They had gangsters who control the train tops who would roam from car to car and surround these people and say, "Your money or your life."

Throw people off of these trains to the churning wheels below.

It's incredible what these people would go through to try to get through the United States.

>> SMITH: Many migrants never make it to America.

Along the tracks, immigration police often find only discarded clothing.

(woman speaking Spanish): >> SMITH: According to human rights groups, six out of every ten women traveling the route report being raped.

And many get birth control injections before setting out on their journey.

>> I was astonished by the number of people I found crossing through Mexico trying to get to the U.S. who had faced some kind of kidnapping, or some kind of extortion, or some other kind of violence.

The people who made it here, it self-selects for people who have a tremendous amount of resilience, a tremendous amount of courage, a tremendous amount of just physical strength to get across.

♪ ♪ >> SMITH: Arnovis and Meybelin avoided the Beast.

Instead, Arnovis paid a smuggler-- or "coyote"-- to help him and Meybelin.

Arnovis said the hardest part was when their coyote packed them in a trailer.

(Arnovis speaking Spanish): >> SMITH: He says they spent 52 hours crammed inside the truck with only an apple and a cracker and nowhere to go to the bathroom.

When they finally reached the U.S. border, they were elated.

It was May 26, 2018.

Before crossing the Rio Grande, they paused for a snapshot.

After crossing, they were hoping to join Arnovis's brother in Kansas.

Did you know that you faced possible separation when you came across the border?

>> SMITH: Arnovis and Meybelin surrendered to Border Patrol and were taken to a processing center in McAllen, Texas.

But 24 hours after they arrived, they were separated.

(Arnovis speaking Spanish): (muffled voices on radio) >> SMITH: The last time Central Americans fleeing violence made big news was during the Obama administration.

(banging) (man speaking Spanish): >> SMITH: In El Salvador, rival gangs MS-13 and 18th Street were at war with each other and the police.

(reporter in Spanish): >> SMITH: Bodies showed up every day.

(reporter in Spanish): >> SMITH: The violence spread to neighboring Honduras and Guatemala.

(sirens blaring) During Obama's first term, many of those fleeing the violence were young people traveling without their parents.

And the numbers were steadily increasing.

>> The government releasing stark new numbers from the crisis on our southern border.

>> SMITH: Then, in 2014, there was an unprecedented surge of minors and young families.

>> The Border Patrol says more than 55,000 unaccompanied children have been detained since October.

That is up 500 percent from... >> SMITH: U.S. officials were totally taken by surprise.

>> ...caught off-guard by all this... >> People from Central America-- unaccompanied children as well as adults with children-- tend to come in the spring, and then... so there is a sort of bump in the number of people that comes that tends to decline in the super-hot months.

>> Unaccompanied minors making their way from Central America... >> 2014 was an exception in that the usual bump that we were expecting-- and I say "we" because I was serving in the administration at the time-- was a hockey stick.

The number of unaccompanied kids in particular spiked dramatically.

(man speaking Spanish): Unaccompanied juvies by themselves.

>> (translating for woman): The violence over there doesn't allow us to go to school, that's why we're coming over here.

>> The U.S. seemed to be caught unaware that there were these push factors in Central America, and that there was this surge that was developing, of these children.

You know, if your house is on fire, you are gonna find a way to get out.

And these children were finding a way to get out.

>> When I took office, I committed to fixing this broken immigration system.

>> SMITH: Then President Obama asked Amy Pope to help coordinate the White House response.

>> We started to hear from Customs and Border Protection, that they were starting to see an uptick of children coming through.

It was clear that it was a pretty significant difference from what we'd seen in the past.

>> Leaked pictures show hundreds upon hundreds of children packed like sardines.

>> SMITH: When pictures surfaced in the media, there was a national outcry.

>> ...that 80% of the children had inadequate food and water supplies... >> They were very compelling pictures.

It was hard to believe that this was happening at the U.S. border.

>> A tidal wave of unaccompanied alien children... >> ...and they reinforced this perception that our border was being flooded.

>> (chanting) (air horn honking) >> As we speak, there are enough Republicans and Democrats in the House to pass an immigration bill.

>> SMITH: For the administration, the timing was terrible.

>> Some in the House Republican caucus are using the situation with unaccompanied children as their newest excuse to do nothing.

>> SMITH: President Obama was, at the time, pursuing major immigration reform.

But his decision to give temporary protection to undocumented children raised in the U.S. was blamed for sending the wrong message.

>> The president's own programs, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, word's getting back home, "If you come to the United States and you're a child, you just tell them you want to come in and they're going to let you in."

>> We're seeing a humanitarian disaster, one of the administration's own making.

>> SMITH: Vice President Biden's adviser was Juan Gonzalez.

You were trying to push through immigration reform, then you get 60,000 unaccompanied minors on... coming across the border.

What was going on inside the administration?

>> Well, I think there was a...

I would say there was a general concern that the flow of migrants at the southwest border would eliminate any opportunity to actually advance meaningful immigration reform in the United States.

>> U.S.A.!

U.S.A.!

>> The Republicans had actually been asking the White House to do, was to be stronger on immigration enforcement.

There's no pleasing any side.

I think on the right, your enforcement is never strong enough, and on the left, you're never being humanitarian enough.

>> Yeah, this is...

I mean, we're on my property right now.

That fence right there is my neighbor.

>> SMITH: As the numbers of migrants increased, so did anti-immigrant sentiment.

Last year we met Mike Vickers, a local veterinarian in Brooks County, Texas, right on the border with Mexico.

>> We need to go through this gate.

>> SMITH: He blamed Obama's immigration proposals for luring thousands of young migrants to America.

>> The Obama administration hurt us.

When he declared that if they have a family member here, he was going to allow them to stay.

I mean, it was, like, 24 hours later, here they come.

I've got pictures of the huge groups of these teenagers pouring across, intercepting them out here, huge groups of them coming through.

♪ ♪ >> SMITH: In order to prevent migrants from coming onto his land, Vickers had set up an electric fence.

>> There's two wires on the top, one on the inside and one on the outside.

It's 220 volts, but it's amped down so it won't kill anybody, so if somebody touches it, it's gonna roll their eyes back a little bit.

They're gonna think twice about trying to climb over the fence.

Consequently, they dig under or they cut holes underneath it.

We're constantly plugging up these holes, or patching the areas that they cut.

>> SMITH: Vickers runs a local militia that helps Border Patrol track down undocumented migrants.

>> This guy is another body, we find a lot of these, you know.

>> SMITH: He shared his laminated pictures of dead migrants found on his ranch.

>> This one is of the more recent ones, this guy was... >> SMITH: Migrants who died of dehydration or hypothermia.

Almost 7,000 dead migrants have been found along the border since 2000.

>> This girl is right by a crawl... crawl hole 50 yards from the front gate you drove in.

I'm black and white.

I'm not gray.

Everybody that is coming to this country illegally are going to have to face some consequences.

The bottom line is as simple as this: they've broken our laws by coming into our country illegally.

Whether they're trying to flee violence, fleeing a terrible economic situation, I don't care what their circumstances are.

We cannot take care of the whole world.

(conversing in Spanish): >> SMITH: U.S. and international law allows anyone-- man, woman, or child-- fleeing violence to seek asylum.

(woman speaking Spanish): >> SMITH: Immigration advocates urged President Obama to be more compassionate.

(man speaking Spanish): >> We're talking about, you know, 60,000 children who were apprehended by Border Patrol.

I mean, those kids wouldn't fill a large football stadium in this country.

I believe that we can handle that level of compassion.

>> SMITH: The White House pushed back.

>> The truth is, you can absorb 70,000 kids if it ends at 70,000 kids.

The question is, is that the end of it?

The population in Central America is in the millions.

We don't have an immigration policy that says, "If you come here, you get to stay here."

It's not clear that if we did have that policy, we would have it for Central Americans and not for other countries around the world.

It's not clear that what was happening in Central America is worse than what was happening in Sudan or Syria, or anywhere else.

(man speaking Spanish) We didn't think it was feasible or consistent with what the American public would tolerate to just say, "Okay, you get here, you're in."

(chatter on radio) >> SMITH: Under pressure from Republicans, the administration ordered several tough measures, including more border agents and accelerated deportations.

>> SMITH: Immigration advocates called Obama the deporter-in-chief.

>> Most importantly we will live... most importantly, we will live up... >> Families are separated!

>> Most importantly, we will live up... >> I cannot see my family again!

>> ...to our character as a nation... >> SMITH: To deter more immigrants, the Obama administration even considered separating children from their parents when they crossed.

>> I do remember being struck that that was a pretty extreme proposal, and that it wasn't considered for very long because it was a terrible idea.

>> SMITH: And what was the idea, exactly?

>> The idea is effectively what the Trump administration has enacted, which is to prosecute everybody who enters illegally, which would necessitate separating kids from their parents.

And we didn't consider it for very long 'cause it was, on its face, a terrible idea.

>> SMITH: Who raised an objection to that idea?

>> It didn't need to be raised.

We all kind of looked at each other and said, "We're not gonna do that, are we?"

And it was pretty clear we weren't.

And that's pretty much as far as it went.

>> A multi-million-dollar detention center has just opened in Texas... >> SMITH: They rejected separating children from parents, but they did commit to an expanded use of family detention.

>> In terms of what options might be on the table, detention for families, intact families, seemed to be the only place to go.

>> Just beyond the dusty dirt field sits the largest immigrant family detention center in the United States.

>> SMITH: To accommodate the growing backlog of asylum seekers, the president ordered the construction of more detention centers.

>> The facility quietly opened this week in Dilley, Texas.

>> SMITH: How did you feel about the idea of building out the infrastructure to allow you to detain families with children?

>> I was not excited about family detention, but at the end of the day, the options available to the government are all pretty terrible.

We don't have the robust asylum process that we need for this kind of a situation.

>> SMITH: Inside family detention, conditions could be harsh.

>> There's nothing "family" about it.

These are vulnerable asylum-seeking mothers and their children, asking for help, and in response our government transferred them to a detention center where some of them suffer needlessly and are ultimately deported.

>> SMITH: Katie Shepherd provided pro bono assistance to families detained in a facility in Dilley, Texas.

>> It looks like a large FEMA camp-- high fences all the way around the facility.

If you drive up to the detention center in Dilley, from the highway, the center is actually recessed into the ground, so you can't even see the detention center.

And at night all you see are these big lights that really light up the sky, it's a bizarre thing.

But it is very much hidden and Dilley is a tiny little town that has, like, four gas stations and a few taco stands, and that's it.

It's far away from robust legal communities, and that decreases the likelihood that these people are able to get a meaningful day in court.

>> SMITH: Family detention remained in place for a year.

But then Obama ran squarely into something called the Flores settlement.

>> There's a settlement out there called Flores that limits when and how children can be held in detention.

We read it as children cannot be held in detention alone under any circumstances.

But Flores wasn't clear that it applied to children who were with their parents.

>> SMITH: But then immigration advocates sued the government arguing that Flores should apply to any and all children held in detention, with or without their families.

They won.

>> Late Friday night, a federal judge ruled that detention centers do not meet legal standards.

>> The current policy of detaining immigrant children and their mothers is unlawful.

>> The judge ultimately determined that you could not detain children for long periods of time, and established a 20-day limit.

>> SMITH: President Obama was forced to release families intact pending court hearings.

It was near the end of his term.

(sirens wailing) (cheers and applause) >> Thank you.

That is some group of people, thousands.

So nice, thank you very much, that's really nice, thank you.

>> SMITH: On the morning of June 16, 2015, Donald Trump announced his run for the presidency.

>> They are bringing drugs.

They are bringing crime.

They are rapists and some, I assume, are good people.

>> SMITH: He invoked fears of a border out of control.

>> The border is a disaster.

People are pouring in, and I mean illegal people, illegal immigrants, and they're pouring in.

>> SMITH: Trump had struck election gold.

>> Illegal immigrants, with criminal records, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.

>> SMITH: He would return to the theme time and time again on the campaign trail... >> We have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out.

>> SMITH: ...and as president.

>> And yes, we will build the wall, it will be built.

(helicopter running) >> His first trip to California as president included a look at the eight wall prototypes.

>> SMITH: After taking office, Trump moved quickly.

>> If you don't have a wall system, we're not going to have a country.

>> Several deportation arrests in northern California today... >> SMITH: In his first 100 days in office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, rounded up 40,000 undocumented immigrants.

Trump also broadened the criteria for deportation and threatened to cut funding to sanctuary cities.

>> ...to turn off the federal spigot for any city that refuses to cooperate on people in this country illegally.

>> SMITH: But some migrants continued to come across.

(man speaking Spanish): >> SMITH: The president seemed especially frustrated by the policy of arresting family units and then releasing them pending a court date.

>> We are going to end catch and release.

We catch them, "Oh, go ahead."

We catch them, "Go ahead."

>> If these orders are carried out, they will radically change how immigration is enforced.

It orders an end to catch and release.

>> SMITH: So the Trump administration began considering something far more draconian-- separation of parents and children at the border, the same policy that Obama had rejected.

>> Force them back.

>> Are you, the Department of Homeland Security, considering a new initiative that would separate children from their parents if they try to enter the United States illegally?

>> Yes, I am considering, in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network, I am considering exactly that.

>> We were very concerned about the consideration of a blanket policy of this nature.

So we continued to monitor the situation.

But we were unable to get confirmation that there was a policy in place from the administration.

What we were told repeatedly was that it was being considered and that they continued to see it as the solution for how to prevent people from coming to our border and asking for asylum.

>> There's been reports that you are considering separating children from their mothers at the border, and I want to know, whether that's true.

>> Only if the situation... >> SMITH: A month later, at a Senate hearing, Kelly publicly walked back his earlier statement on separations.

>> If the mother is sick or addicted to drugs or whatever.

In the same way we would do it here in the United States if we... >> So, if you thought the child was endangered... >> Not routinely.

Sure.

>> That's, that's the only circumstance to which you would separate?

>> Can't, can't imagine doing otherwise.

>> Yeah.

>> SMITH: But three months later, they did just that.

The Trump administration quietly began a pilot program at the southern border.

>> And we soon learned that there were hundreds of little children who had been taken from their parents.

And so while everyone's waiting to see whether they're gonna enact a "policy," they were doing it anyway.

(dog barking) >> SMITH: That summer we were in Tijuana, Mexico, and spoke to Esmeralda Rodriguez and her three daughters, who had sought refuge at this shelter for women and children.

(children laughing) They were planning to ask for asylum by entering the country legally at a checkpoint in San Diego.

But they had heard rumors that families were either being turned away at the checkpoint or detained and separated.

(girl speaking Spanish): (interviewer speaking): >> SMITH: The family had fled El Salvador in November 2016.

They say they escaped after the oldest, Alison, witnessed a murder.

(Alison speaking): (interviewer speaking): (Alison speaking): (interviewer speaking): (Alison speaking): >> SMITH: Alison's mother said there was no turning back.

(interviewer speaking): (Esmeralda speaking): (waves crashing) >> SMITH: The practice of separating families was in effect by the fall of 2017.

But opposition was muted.

>> I have put in place a zero- tolerance policy for illegal entry... >> SMITH: It was not until months later that Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the separation policy explicit while on a border visit to San Diego.

He said the government had to separate children while their parents were prosecuted for illegal entry.

>> If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child may be separated from you as required by law.

>> Get out of here.

>> If you make false statements... >> Are you going to be separating families?

Is that why you're here?

>> SMITH: Behind Sessions was the acting director of ICE, Tom Homan.

>> I was honored to stand next to Jeff Sessions to announce this decision, surrounded by many American heroes wearing green, with one heckler that probably doesn't know the first thing about serving this nation.

>> Do you have a heart?

Do you have a soul?

Get out of here!

Why do you work for this administration?

>> In order to carry out these important policies... >> It's not a new policy.

DHS has not changed their policy on separating families.

What we're saying is, if you cross the country illegally, between the ports of entry, you're going to be prosecuted.

We've done it before, now we're just going to do zero tolerance.

We made it clear... >> SMITH: But we hadn't separated families.

>> We've been separating families for the 34 years I've been doing this job.

>> SMITH: Yes, you've been separating families if there's a threat to the welfare of the child.

This is a much broader application of this enforcement.

>> Agree.

We do more of it.

>> SMITH: This decision to enforce the law much more strictly resulted in the separation of somewhere between 2,000 to 3,000 parents from their children.

That was new.

>> I agree.

>> SMITH: The Trump administration argued they were forced to do it because under the Flores settlement, children cannot be held for more than 20 days in an adult detention facility.

They said they faced a stark choice.

>> And the choice is binary: to separate the children or instead within 20 days, to let the parents and the children go free into society with the expectation they show up for court... >> The administration has been creating this false dichotomy, this false choice that the only options are separation or family detention, which they say they couldn't do.

The reality is, is that alternatives to detention exist specifically designed as humane, affordable, and effective options.

>> SMITH: Instead of choosing another option, the Trump administration simply separated children and sent them to shelters.

>> The conditions are more than comfortable for these kids while their parents are being prosecuted for illegal entry.

They're keeping them in a protected, safe environment that, frankly, is probably superior to some of the situations you see in our cities and towns... >> SMITH: Jessica Vaughan is the director of policy studies at a Washington-based think tank that advocates strong border enforcement.

>> ...for these shelters, but they are appropriate for these kids, and... >> SMITH: Has this been done ever before in American history?

>> It certainly has been done if it's determined that the parent is a risk to the child.

>> SMITH: That's different.

That's a child welfare issue.

That's to protect the child.

That's different.

Has there ever been a time in American history where parents were separated from their children by the government forcibly?

>> Well, certainly in the criminal justice system it has been.

>> SMITH: Yeah.

But that's different.

That's for the welfare of the child.

>> I can't think of another time that I know of when kids have been separated from the caretaker parent.

>> SMITH: In fact, the last time children were separated like this was when the government forcibly separated Native American children from their families.

A lot of Americans find it appalling.

What do you say to them?

>> I think it's appalling that we have to do it.

>> SMITH: What do you think the consequences are for these children that have gone through, that are still going through, this trauma?

>> I, I think it's very possible that some of these kids will, will have some lasting effects.

>> SMITH: For 15-year-old Yoselyn Bulux, who crossed into Arizona with her mother on June 1, it was traumatic.

They were picked up and initially taken to a cell which detainees call "the ice box."

(Yoselyn speaking Spanish): >> SMITH: Within hours, they were separated.

Yoselyn was sent to a Texas shelter.

Her mother remained in Arizona.

(interviewer speaking): (Yoselyn speaking): (sniffling) >> SMITH: For the very young, the experience is likely even more harrowing.

Michelle Brané visited children in detention in June.

>> I observed young children being held in separate cells from their parents, pending processing.

In some cases, they were extremely distraught.

They had no idea what was going to happen to them.

They had not been told.

>> SMITH: Brané asked to interview some of the children.

>> We were given a list by the government and we were told that we could choose who we wanted to speak to.

Looking through the list of over 500 names, I noticed that there were some very young children there, including a two-year-old, several one-year-olds, and one child that was listed as being zero.

So I asked to see those children.

They left and came back and said that they couldn't find the children.

They said to me, "Well, we called out their name and nobody responded.

So we don't know where they are."

So I sort of said... >> SMITH: These are babies.

>> "They're babies.

They're babies.

Obviously they're not gonna respond to their name being called.

Perhaps you need to locate the adult who's in charge of them.

Who's taking care of these babies?"

And they had no answer for me.

They just shook their head and said, "I don't know."

>> Growing outrage tonight as thousands of children are split from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border... >> The battle over the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy on immigration is intensifying.

>> If the Statue of Liberty could cry, she would be crying today.

As I stand here, there are 2,300 babies and kids who were ripped away from their parents by our government and are in detention facilities across America.

>> SMITH: Outrage came from both the right and the left.

>> You are not forgotten!

You are not forgotten!

>> Many of the criticisms raised in recent days are not fair, not logical, and some are contrary to plain law.

>> SMITH: On June 14, Attorney General Sessions responded to criticism by invoking scripture.

>> ...due to the apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for His purposes.

>> I'm not aware of the attorney general's comments or what he would be referencing... >> SMITH: Later that day, Sarah Huckabee Sanders backed Sessions up.

>> I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law, that is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible.

(man talking) Hold on, Jim.

If you'll let me finish.

Again, I'm not going to comment on the attorney's specific comments that I haven't seen.

>> You just said it's in the Bible to follow the law.

>> It's not what I said and please don't take my words out of context.

>> Come on, Sarah, you're a parent.

Don't you have any empathy for what these people are going through?

They have less than you do.

>> Brian, guys.

>> Sarah, come on.

Seriously.

>> Settle down.

>> It's a serious question.

These people have nothing.

They come to the border with nothing.

And you throw children in cages.

You're a parent.

You're a parent of young children.

Don't you have any empathy for what they go through?

>> Jill, go ahead.

(child wailing) (girl speaking): >> SMITH: Four days after that, an audio tape was published by ProPublica.

It led the news for days.

>> SMITH: When you heard the tape that ProPublica published of the children wailing, what was your reaction?

>> I didn't hear the tape.

>> SMITH: Oh, come on.

>> I did not hear the tape.

I did not hear the tape.

>> SMITH: I can't believe that.

>> I've heard many children cry in my 34 years.

I don't need to hear children cry.

>> SMITH: Can I play it for you?

>> Yeah.

>> I can have it pulled up.

(child crying on recording) >> SMITH: It's a young girl who asks to call her aunt.

She wants to call her aunt, she has the number memorized.

(girl crying, speaking Spanish) (recording continues) >> SMITH: What do you think?

>> It tugs at the heartstrings, for sure.

>> SMITH: How can you not condemn that?

>> Look, I, I've seen a lot of terrible things in my 34 years.

But we have to address the border.

I mean... >> SMITH: Do you not sympathize with their situation?

>> Absolutely-- I'm a parent.

It's sad.

But when the government chooses to enforce the law and they separate the parents who have been prosecuted, just like every U.S. citizen person in this country, gets separated when he gets arrested.

But people want a different set of rules for an illegal alien.

>> We're signing an executive order, I consider it to be a very important executive order.

It's about keeping families together.

>> SMITH: Two days after the audio tape of the wailing children, the president reversed course.

>> You're going to have a lot of happy people.

Feel very strongly about it, we don't like to see families separated.

At the same time, we don't want people coming into our country illegally.

This takes care of the problem.

Thank you very much, everybody.

>> (chanting): Where are the children?

Where are the children?

>> SMITH: The president's order stopped future separations, but it said nothing about what would happen with the children already separated.

>> Set them free!

Set them free!

Set them free!

>> SMITH: On June 30, demonstrators in 700 cities and towns across America demanded reunification.

>> Thank you all for coming out.

Hey there, everyone, we're headed towards the Department of Justice.

>> SMITH: As a result of an A.C.L.U.

lawsuit, a federal judge in California had ordered the government to reunite all separated children within one month.

15-year-old Yoselyn Bulux was released from a children's shelter in Brownsville, Texas, on June 30.

(woman speaking Spanish) Six days later, her mother, Juana, was released from a detention center in Eloy, Arizona.

Volunteers paid her bond.

(Juana speaking): >> SMITH: She was released with another Guatemalan woman, Amalia, who had been separated from her two boys.

(Amalia speaking): >> SMITH: The following days would be full of hotel rooms and car rides... >> Good morning!

>> SMITH: ...as the two were driven across the country to reunite with their children.

(Amalia speaking): (Juana speaking): >> Si.

(Juana speaking): >> SMITH: In New York, mother and daughter were reunited after 38 days apart.

Juana says her daughter had changed.

(Juana speaking): (Yoselyn speaking): ♪ ♪ >> SMITH: Despite a court order, hundreds of children remain separated from their parents.

(man speaking): >> SMITH: Maritza and Wilfredo, who I saw in the shelter in McAllen, Texas, were met by her brother in Virginia.

Maritza now reports to the authorities every 15 days while she waits for her asylum hearing.

The Rodriguez family spent four weeks in family detention before being released.

We have since lost touch with them.

Meybelin Guidos was sent back to El Salvador after 33 days in the shelter in Arizona.

Her father says she has also changed.

Now she is quiet, he says, and cries a lot.

(Arnovis speaking): >> SMITH: But the day before we arrived, Meybelin had started to talk about her experiences for the first time.

(Maybelin speaking): (Arnovis and Maybelin speaking): (Arnovis speaking): (Maybelin speaking): (Arnovis speaking): (Maybelin speaking): Dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete... (Arnovis speaking): >> Go to pbs.org/frontline to read more from the former director of ICE, Tom Homan.

>> I've seen a lot of terrible things in my 34 years, but we have to address the border.

>> And follow the story of Maybelin and her father from El Salvador to the U.S. and back again.

Then visit our films page, where you can watch over 200 "Frontline" documentaries.

Connect to the "Frontline" community on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for our newsletter at pbs.org/frontline.

>> NARRATOR: Next time on "Frontline..." >> You will not replace us!

>> NARRATOR: After Charlottesville... (people yelling) >> Is your sense that there's new energy joining these movements?

>> It's probably the most active in my career.

>> NARRATOR: "Frontline" and ProPublica investigate... >> ...what you were doing in Charlottesville last year.

>> NARRATOR: ...who was behind the violent white supremacist rally.

>> There's video of you launching yourself into that crowd.

We think he's serving in the Marines now.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> For more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ "Frontline's" "Separated: Children at the Border" is available on DVD.

To order, visit shop.pbs.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

"Frontline" is also available for download on iTunes.

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Stories from the inside... >> In this country especially if you live with fear, you'’re done.