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Guardian reporter Oliver Laughland has been reporting today at a federal magistrates court in McAllen, Texas where dozens of migrants faced a judge. Here’s a dispatch on what they are facing:

At a mass plea hearing in a federal magistrates court in McAllen, Texas, at about the time of Trump’s announcement, 74 migrants, mostly from Central America, sat in a packed-out courtroom.

Each was charged with illegal entry misdemeanor, the vast majority never having committed a crime in the US. Before Judge J Scott Hacker, lawyers informed the court that 24 of the defendants were parents who had been separated from their children by US authorities after being apprehended near the border.

As most of the men and women were sentenced to time served, Óscar Rox-Flores, a Guatemalan migrant apprehended with his daughter two days ago, spoke before the judge.

“In my case I am here with my daughter,” he said. “I want to be deported with her so we can both go home together.”

Judge Hacker was able to offer no assurances. “I don’t have an answer that question,” he said. “Hopefully there are procedures in place.”

Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) Witnessing some of the plea hearings here in McAllen & Brownsville, as fathers and mothers beg federal judges to reunite them with their missing children has been among the most shocking things I've ever seen.

Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) Two fathers asked, as they were sentenced to time served, if it was possible to be sent home with their children. The judge was unable to offer them any assurances at all.