This browser does not support the Video element.
We have better insight now on the number of children separated from their parents at the border.
The Department of Health and Human Services says more than 2,000 minors who were separated are being cared for at various facilities. The border patrol says more than 500 children have been reunited with their families. What the government has not said is how long it will take to reunite them all.
Some North Texas religious and civic leaders traveled to the border Saturday. They say they were told they could tour three facilities where children are being kept if they didn't bring reporters or record video. That did not happen. Instead, there was a protest that drew a crowd of hundreds.
President Trump tweeted Sunday, "We cannot allow all of these people to invade our country" saying instead, they must be sent back to where they came from without a judge hearing their case.
Dallas Attorney Domingo Garcia traveled to the border Saturday to tour detention centers where Health and Human Services says it’s housing some of the more than 2,000 children who have been separated from their families.
“America is better than putting babies and toddlers in jails,” said Garcia.
At the last minute Saturday, Garcia says he was denied entry to the detention centers. Instead, he protested outside of the McAllen facility when a bus started rolling out.
“And when I look in the bus, I see all these little hands waving at me,” he said. “I just got in front of the bus and I said, 'Where are you taking the kids?'”
Garcia snapped several photos, as hundreds of people started swarming the bus in protest, fearing the children were being taken to detention centers, even farther from their parents.
“They're behind bars in a bus. They should be basically in a kindergarten somewhere,” said Garcia.
The government clarified in a statement Saturday that it knows the location of all children in its custody and is working to reunite them with their families, saying the process is "well-coordinated”.
“The government was not ready to deal with this crisis made by the Trump administration,” said Garcia.
Garcia says the bus eventually reversed back into the facility, and the protest ended, but he and others are planning more demonstrations for Independence Day, asking for what he calls humane immigration reform.
“It's definitely not what we celebrate on the 4th of July, and I think that's the message we are trying to get across,” said Garcia.
Garcia says one of those protests on the 4th of July will be here in Dallas, possibly at the ICE Detention Center off Stemmons Freeway.