For eight minutes, children cry for their parents while one federal agent cracks jokes.
This is what children sound like when American authorities separate them from their families at the US border.
ProPublica obtained the audio and posted it online Monday afternoon. Throughout the eight-minute clip, you can hear several children sobbing and crying for their parents and other family members. At one point, a federal agent makes a joke that the crying sounds like an orchestra. Later, a federal worker asks the children where their parents are. One says their mom is at “someone else’s house.” Another says their mom is in Honduras.
This is how ProPublica described the origins of the tape:
Federal authorities have separated at least 2,000 children from their parents in recent weeks, according to the Trump administration. In addition to the audio above, we have also seen photographs of the facilities where these children are being detained.
