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Crying girl in border photo wasn't separated from her mom, father says

The photo of a crying Honduran girl became a symbol of the situation at the border and landed on the cover of Time Magazine.
Credit: John Moore/Getty Images
A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

The viral image of a toddler crying as her mother is being patted down by a Border Patrol agent had become a symbol of the family separation crisis at the border.

But the young girl's father, along with foreign and U.S. officials, confirmed Thursday night that the child and mother were not separated after they were detained.

As the image went viral, eventually landing on the cover of Time magazine for July, Denis Javier Varela Hernandez recognized the girl in the photo as his daughter.

He told the Washington Post he too feared they had been separated at the border, but learned this week that wasn't the case.

According to Varela, an official with Honduras's foreign ministry called him recently and said his wife, 32-year-old Sandra Sanchez, was detained with her nearly-2-year-old daughter, Yanela, at a facility in McAllen Tex.

Credit: John Moore/Getty Images, 2018 Getty Images
A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. 

One of the border patrol agents who found Sanchez and her daughter told CBS News' David Begnaud that the toddler was crying because her mother set her down while she was being searched.

"We asked her to set the kid down in front of her, not away from her, she was right in front of her...So we can properly search the mother," Border Patrol agent Carlos Ruiz described. "So the kid immediately started crying as she set her down. I personally went up to the mother and asked her 'Are you doing OK? Is the kid OK?' and she said, 'Yes. She's tired and thirsty. It's 11 o'clock at night.'"

Ruiz added that the search took less than two minutes and once it was done Sanchez picked up her daughter, who "immediately stopped crying."

Award-winning Getty Images photographer John Moore took the photo and said Ruiz and the other agents acted professionally that night.

Credit: John Moore/Getty Images
A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

As the new details surrounding the back story of the photo spread it set off more media criticism from the White House.

Credit: TIME Photo-Illustration. Photographs by Getty Images

"It’s shameful that dems and the media exploited this photo of a little girl to push their agenda," White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted.

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