Harrowing footage has shown an 17-month girl being reunited with her mother a month after being separated from her asylum-seeking parents by US border forces.

The Honduran toddler is seen crying as she is cradled by her tearful mother, Sindy Flores, at San Francisco International Airport.

The child, Juliet, was taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when officers detained her father at the US-Mexico border in late December.

Her father, Kevin Ventura-Corrales, is facing deportation but his partner, Ms Flores, remained in the US while her asylum claim was processed.

Juliet was held at a shelter for migrant children in Texas after being taken from her parents.

"I was devastated, not knowing what to do,” her mother told NBC. “Impotent knowing she was somewhere else and not with me.”

Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Show all 14 1 /14 Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Immigrant children, many of whom are separated form their parents, are housed in Texas' tent city Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented migrants ride on the top of a freight train referred to as the beast, or La Bestia Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A cage inside a US Customs and Border Protection detention facility in Texas Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy All new agents must complete a months-long training course at the New Mexico facility before assuming their posts at Border Patrol stations, mostly along the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence A group of young men walk along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border fence in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence in the US Man looks through US-Mexico border fence into the US in Tijuana, Mexico Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence US Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol on in La Joya, Texas Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy US Border Patrol instructor yells at trainees after their initial arrival to the academy Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Memorial service in Guatemala Families attend a memorial service for two boys who were kidnapped and killed in San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Crime drives emigration from Guatemala to the United States, as families seek refuge from the danger Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Arrests on the border Undocumented immigrants comfort each other after being caught by Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Detention holding facility A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the US Border Patrol Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican farm workers Mexican migrant workers harvest organic parsley at Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colorado Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican family in Arizona A Mexican immigrant family sits in the living room of their rented home in Tuscon, Arizona. The family that Arizona's new tough immigrant law had created a climate of fear in the immigrant community. Getty

The 23-year-old said was concerned about the impact the separation had had on her daughter and how she was treated while detained.

San Francisco psychologist Chandra Ghoshippen said: “Not only is she old enough to be affected, she’s more likely to be affected than an older child because her parents are her world; they’re everything she knows.”

Juliet and Ms Flores were reunited on Tuesday following campaigning by Mijente, a grassroots Latin American social justice movement.

“I’m not the only one going through this,” Ms Flores told the San Francisco Chronicle. "There are thousands of other families experiencing the same, but maybe they’re afraid to speak out.”

Ms Flores has two other children, aged seven and nine, who crossed the border with her and have been staying in San Francisco.

Mijente said the family were now facing a "very long battle" for asylum in the US.

US immigration officials are working through more than 800,000 applications after the government shutdown exacerbated an already huge backlog.

In June last year, Donald Trump's administration officially abolished its controversial policy of separating children from their migrant parents after they cross the border illegally.