This is In Conversation from Apple News. I'm Shemita Basu. Today, how the U.S. government separated migrant families and how it could happen again.

In mid-2017, the Trump administration began quietly separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

It would be a full year before administration officials formally acknowledged the practice as part of their zero-tolerance policy, with many calling it a deterrent against illegal immigration. It became one of the most controversial policies

in modern American history. New images released by Customs and Border Protection show the living

conditions for people being held at a Border Patrol facility in south texas children can be seen in

steel cages sleeping on mattresses on the floor with foil sheets as blankets it is images like these

that have now become a flashpoint in the trump administration's zero tolerance policy thousands of

migrant children being separated from their parents.

She was breastfeeding when the government took her daughter from her.

And now, in a recording first obtained by ProPublica, you can hear the desperate sobbing of children.

My mom. You can hear six-year-old You can hear six-year-old Alison Hima Valencia Madrid from El Salvador

begging to talk to her aunt.

Backlash is growing across the country.

Many religious leaders around the world are also condemning the policy.

Criticism from all former first ladies, including Laura Bush, calling the policy cruel and immoral.

67% of Americans believe separating children from parents on the southern border is unacceptable.

I mean, this is government sanctioned child abuse.

More than 5,000 children were ultimately separated from their families.

In June of 2018, Trump signed an executive order ending the policy.

To date, more than 1,300 children still have not been reunited with their parents.

As Trump prepares for his second term,

he's vowed to deport massive numbers of migrants,

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