SILCA, Honduras — Nimia Morales had spent more than a decade trying to get a job as a teacher, and her husband Julio Cesar’s job as a tailor was barely enough to cover food and rent, so they decided to take their four children to the United States, where many of their friends and family had already settled.

They devised a plan: Nimia and two of her daughters would go first, and Julio and the other children would follow. But then Nimia was caught at the border, just as the Trump administration was rolling out its new policy of separating families, and everything began to unravel.

“That’s when they told me: This is when you cry, because you’re not going to see them again,” Nimia said, recalling the day she was separated from her 6- and 12-year-old daughters.

A month later, Nimia was deported without her two daughters.

Now her husband feels like he has no choice but to cross back into the U.S. alone. "I don't want to risk another child, but I want to be close to them by being over there," he said.

VICE News traveled to Honduras, where Nimia and her husband are still struggling to comprehend what has happened to their family.