A little girl shown in a viral photo crying as a U.S. Border Patrol agent detained her mother – and used by TIME magazine to symbolize the Trump administration's family separation policy – reportedly was never separated from her mom.
“Welcome to America,†declared a somber TIME cover, which showed the picture of the Honduran child Yanela Sanchez next to a towering President Trump.
TIME called it “an image America could not ignore†and interviewed the photographer, as did other outlets. TIME followed up with another article entirely about the cover and “the story behind†it.
The picture was featured in international coverage of the policy around the world. The New York Daily News also put Sanchez on the cover of its June 16 issue with the headline: “Callous. Soulless. Craven. Trump.â€
Wow. What a powerful and heartbreaking front page.
'A 2-year-old Honduran girl cries as her mother is detained near the Mexican border in McAllen, Texas.'
CNN analyst Chris Cillizza wrote an entire article on the TIME cover: "It shows the compassion gap that exists between the Trump administration's 'zero-tolerance' border policy and the real-life people that are affected."
But multiple outlets interviewed the father of the girl behind the iconic image, and he said he had learned that his two-year-old daughter was detained with her mother at a facility in Texas, and the two were not separated at all. The Honduran government confirmed his version of events to Reuters.