Disturbing Audio Records Border Agents Mocking Sobbing Migrant Children Separated From Parents

The cries are gut-wrenching.

In audio obtained by ProPublica and released on Monday, the sobbing of ten Central American children crying for their parents offers a glimpse at the child suffering going on at the nation’s borders.

At one point, a young girl is heard asking about her aunt.

“My mommy says that I’ll go with my aunt,” she says, “and that she’ll come to pick me up there as quickly as possible.”

Nearby other children are crying too but a Border Control Agent seemed unmoved.

“Well, we have an orchestra here,” the deep, adult voice jokes amid the tears. “What’s missing is a conductor.”

According to ProPublica, the tape was obtained by someone last week inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention facility. That person, who did not wish to be identified for fear of retaliation, handed the tape over to Jennifer Harbury, a well-known civil rights attorney.

Harbury turned it over to ProPublica so the public could hear what was really happening at our nation’s borders to small children.

ProPublica was able to contact the little girl’s aunt in the video.

“It was the hardest moment in my life,” the aunt said about getting the call from her young niece. “Imagine getting a call from your 6-year-old niece. She’s crying and begging me to go get her. She says, ‘I promise I’ll behave, but please get me out of here. I’m all alone.’”

She also said this of the little girl separated from her mom: “I know she’s not an American citizen,” the aunt, who is living in the United States, said. “But she’s a human being. She’s a child. How can they treat her this way?”

Listen above, via ProPublica.

[image via Customs and Border Protection]