http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-19/mcallen-story-behind-image-of-crying-toddler-at-us-mexico-border/9886210
Photographer tells story behind viral image of crying toddler at US-Mexico border
A child in a pink shirt cries and looks up at her mother, who is being detained by officials near the US-Mexico border.
She's the little girl whose tear-stained face has gone viral around the world.
The two-year-old Honduran girl and her mother were among the many families stopped at the US-Mexican border in recent days, as they tried to cross illegally from the Rio Grande Valley.
The toddler was briefly separated from her mother and promptly burst into tears, as the woman was searched by US border authorities.
Then mother and daughter were taken away where the mother was presumably charged.
Photographer John Moore from Getty Images had only moments to snap a picture of the little girl — not enough time to get even her name.
"I could see the fear on their faces, in their eyes," he told National Public Radio.
"As the Border Patrol took people's names down, I could see a mother holding a young child. And when it came time for that mother and the two-year-old daughter to be searched before transportation to the processing centre, they asked the mother to set down her daughter.
"At that moment, the young child broke into tears, and she started wailing. And I took a knee and had very few frames of that moment before it was over.
"She picked up her daughter, and they were rushed into the van and all taken away."
the little girl with dark curls has since become the human face of US President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy that arrests all adults caught trying to enter the US illegally.
Almost 2,000 children were separated from their parents between mid-April and the end of May, under a new policy which has drawn condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans.
Moore said as a father himself he found it difficult to watch the girl and her mother without thinking of his own children.
"Most of us here had heard the news that the administration had planned to separate families," he said.
"These people really had no idea about this news and it was hard to take these pictures, knowing what was coming next.
"As a photojournalist, it's my role to keep going, even when it's hard.
"But as a father — and I have a toddler myself — it was very difficult to see what was happening in front of my lens and thinking what it would be like for my kids to be separated from me."
Before he had time to capture more than a few shots, the girl and her mother were gone.