Asylum-seeking mother and daughter who were never separated and living in Miami says Americans 'don't have hearts' in viral CNN video

Greg P. | 6:50 AM on July 03, 2018

First, read this tweet from CNN:

A 7-year-old girl was reunited with her mom after nearly two months in immigration detention. The mom’s message to other mothers: If you’re thinking of claiming asylum, find another country: “The laws here are harsh. And people don’t have hearts,” she said

The implication here in the now-viral video accompanying the tweet is that the mom, who is from Guatemala and seeking asylum, was separated from her daughter because of President Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy. Oh, and Americans’ “don’t have hearts.” Nice.

But, surprise!

The mom in the video was never separated from her daughter. She crossed the border with her 10-month-old son and is living in Miami with family as they await their asylum decision. The 7-year-old girl in the video was apprehended at a different time while crossing the border illegally with her father. The daughter, as the video shows, has now been released to her mother while the father awaits deportation. So the “harsh” law here is that the U.S. government didn’t deport the daughter with the father but instead reunited her with her mother to await an asylum ruling in Miami?

Watch for yourself:

A 7-year-old girl was reunited with her mom after nearly two months in immigration detention. The mom's message to other mothers: If you're thinking of claiming asylum, find another country: "The laws here are harsh. And people don't have hearts," she said https://t.co/sTQeJtv5XP pic.twitter.com/NVa5kjK8DU

— CNN (@CNN) July 2, 2018