Before deporting him in shackles last week, U.S. immigration agents handed Honduran asylum-seeker Melvin Garcia his few possessions and a small blue wallet belonging to Daylin, the 12-year-old daughter they had taken from him.
Uncertain when he might see her again, after being barred from the United States by his deportation order, Garcia, 37, is one of an uncertain number of parents sent home without their children under the Trump administration.
Frustrated that immigrants and asylum seekers from Central America were often released into the United States to await court hearings, U.S. President Donald Trump implemented a "zero tolerance policy" in April seeking to prosecute all adults who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, including those traveling with children. This dramatically increased the number of families separated at the border.