On May 20, Miguel Amaya’s phone rang. An undocumented immigrant living in Oakland, California, Miguel had been anxiously awaiting a call from his wife, Jhoseline, who, along with their 8-year-old daughter, Michelle, was braving the dangerous journey from El Salvador to the United States. Days earlier, Jhoseline and Michelle had escaped a near-death experience after being locked in the trailer of a semi-truck, where they and other migrants nearly suffocated after being abandoned by their coyote.

The voice on the other end of the line wasn’t that of Jhoseline, but of an ICE agent. What mother and daughter believed to be the end of their journey, in fact, marked the beginning of a new nightmare. Under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, Jhoseline and Michelle were separated at the time of their apprehension. This was the first time Jhoseline had ever been apart from her daughter.