US Immigration Crisis: US zero tolerance on border crossings causing turmoil

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02:24

Another day of uncertainty for undocumented children held at US detention centers without their parents. CGTN's Nitza Soledad Perez reports from near the US and Mexico border.

This Mexican grandmother crosses the border to buy goods and resell them in Mexico.

MARIA DEL ROSARIO CARCAMO MEXICAN CITIZEN "We cross the border because we have to, we need it to survive, but if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't cross anymore."

On the other side of the Rio Grande, they try to make sense of this zero tolerance policy and what it's doing to their families and friends.

MARIA DEL ROSARIO CARCAMO MEXICAN CITIZEN "I get it, sometimes, we deserve some kind of punishment but taking away the children from a mother, no."

For the Trump administration and some Americans, undocumented migrants are a threat to public safety. On Friday, Trump met with families who he said were "victims of illegal immigration."

DONALD TRUMP US PRESIDENT "These are the American citizens permanently separated from their loved ones. The word permanently is the word you need to think about. Not one or two days but permanently separated."

The president was referring to undocumented families that have been forcibly separated since April, as a result of his approach to illegal migration. Some of them, asylum seekers.

EFREN OLIVARES LAWYER "That is torture of children, in my opinion, because the children are being punished for something that their parent did. And maybe what the parent did doesn't even deserve punishment because all they're doing is seeking asylum."

Migrants apprehended for illegal crossing remain in detention centers, most of them wondering what happened to their children.

EFREN OLIVARES LAWYER "Today was the first day we went in, and among the people being criminally prosecuted for the misdemeanor of illegal entry, there were no parents, there was not a single person that said, I'm a mother, I'm a father, that was separated from my child. It appears this is a consequence of a change in policy by the government."

One family from Guatemala was reunited many others are dreaming about similar reunions.