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The confused and panicked children for their parents, who had been separated from them at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration鈥檚 family separation policy.

鈥溌�Mami!鈥� 鈥溌�Pap谩!鈥� the children from Central America screamed, as if they knew no other words.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want them to stop my father,鈥� one child said through tears. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want them to deport him.鈥澛犅犅�

Hearing the pleas that were two years ago, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent joked, 鈥淲ell, we have an orchestra here. What鈥檚 missing is a conductor.鈥�

As public pressure quickly mounted against Trump鈥檚 鈥渮ero tolerance鈥� policy to try to deter immigration, he signed an on June 20, 2018 鈥撀� two years ago this week 鈥� directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stop separating families at the border, except in cases where there was concern that the parent might endanger the child. Six days later, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw to halt family separations.

But since then, the practice has continued under the American public鈥檚 nose.

By the time the nation heard the children begging for their parents in June 2018, reports surfaced that 鈥� including 100 toddlers under the age of 4 鈥� had already been separated from their parents in the two months prior. This number would continue to grow. 聽

In many cases, the already-traumatized children were held in cages within locked warehouses. They slept under blankets

In other instances, children were shipped to live in tents or newly converted big box stores used as Border Patrol detention facilities. Grief-stricken, they .

But separating families was nothing new under the Trump administration.

By mid-2017 in El Paso, Texas, the administration had begun its forcing any adult who crossed the border without permission 鈥� a misdemeanor for a first-time offender 鈥� into detention. The administration ripped their children from their arms and charged some of them with crimes. By the end of 2017, the administration was separating families along the length of the southern border, including those who lawfully presented themselves to authorities at ports of entry.

Family separation accelerated with the on April 7, 2018. Under this policy, everyone crossing the border 鈥� even those seeking asylum 鈥� was treated like a criminal. The government took away their children, claiming that they were subject to prosecution. Even families lawfully presenting themselves at ports of entry continued to be separated.

Under the family separation policy and even in 2017, asylum seekers were imprisoned, and accompanying children under 18 were handed over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which scattered them among more than 100 Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters and other care arrangement centers across the country. Making matters worse, the government failed to create a reunification system, leaving parents unable to reunite with 鈥� or even track 鈥� their children. 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

As the policy went into full swing, advocates fiercely criticized the administration, declaring that the policy was Former First Lady Laura Bush the practices 鈥渃ruel鈥� and 鈥渋mmoral.鈥�

But it wasn鈥檛 until June 15, 2018, that DHS it had separated nearly 2,000 children from their parents or legal guardians between April 19 and May 31 of that year. This number 鈥� which did not account for the thousands separated prior to April 19 鈥� would continue to rise. 聽

Doubling down

In the months following Trump鈥檚 order claiming to end the policy, family separations continued 鈥� but under other, more clandestine, practices. 聽聽

By July 2018, parents were between leaving the U.S. with their children or pursuing their claims for asylum in the U.S. without their children. 聽聽That same month, Judge Sabraw noted that at least 463 separated parents from the United States without their children.

Amnesty International later reported that CBP between April 19, 2018, and August 15, 2018 鈥� a much higher number than previously reported by the U.S. government. During that time, children were languishing in tent cities on the border, or were locked behind bars in family detention centers without their parents or guardians. 聽聽

In October of that year, a 5-year-old girl from Honduras was after being separated from her grandmother at the southern border. Immigration advocates reported that the administration was not only doubling down on family separation, but it was doing so 鈥渋n the cover of the night.鈥�

The next month, Border Patrol agents began using spurious and vague allegations of minor, nonviolent criminal offenses that wouldn鈥檛 normally lead to a loss of parental custody as an excuse to continue the separations. In one instance, DHS separated based on unclear allegations of gang activity, but refused to provide any evidence supporting that accusation. 聽

By January 2019, that thousands more children had been separated from their parents since 2017 than was previously known. Moreover, had been separated from relatives other than parents or legal guardians. But such separations had not been included in DHS statistics. 聽聽聽

The family separation policy had not ended; it was simply operating covertly.

The 鈥榥ightmare鈥� continues 聽聽

In March 2019, nine months after President Trump rescinded the family separation policy, And by May 2019, that number

Advocates argued this number was actually much greater, noting that near California, and other children were being taken from their parents in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

As they awaited their reunification in El Paso, Texas, They didn鈥檛 have enough food or water, and many were suffering from the flu. 聽聽聽聽

By July 2019, the U.S. government began employing extreme measures to separate families from foreign police and militaries to uncover whether asylum-seeking parents were affiliated with gangs. Attorneys questioned the tactic, noting that databases could erroneously label asylum seekers as criminals, such as one Salvadoran man after immigration agents falsely identified him as a gang member. 聽聽聽聽

That same month, a from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform detailed that the Trump administration hadn鈥檛 been transparent with the American people regarding the purposes of the separations. What鈥檚 more, the House committee chairman said the 鈥渘ightmare鈥� of family separations was intensifying problems along the southern border.聽 聽聽聽

By September 2019, Judge Sabraw 鈥� the judge who had issued the order to halt family separations 鈥� to reunite 11 children with parents who had been deported under its family separation policy. The judge concluded that some migrants had been pressured to consent to their deportation while they were separated from their children.

Climbing numbers

In January 2020, however, Judge Sabraw new guidelines to limit the government from separating migrant families, in turn allowing immigration officials to use their discretion when doing so.

That same month, the official government count of children separated from parents or guardians since 2017 By February, the administration had separated at least from parents at the border since the policy鈥檚 鈥渆nd.鈥� And by mid-May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or risk being detained together indefinitely.

Two years after the executive order ending the family separation policy was signed and the injunction was issued, the message from the Trump administration is still the same: Migrant families don鈥檛 have the basic human right 鈥撀爋r need 鈥� to stay together.

Related: Family separation under the Trump administration 鈥� a timeline

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