It was meant to be a sweet family day. The little ones and their parents piled into the car to go to Sunday mass. After they said their prayers, the parents wanted to treat their children to brand new shoes for the first day of school. As they were on their way to the store, border patrol unexpectedly pulled them over.

The eldest daughter, a U.S. citizen, was driving the car. Border patrol forced her parents to identify themselves even though they were only passengers. Border patrol admitted the driver had done nothing wrong, that they had scanned the license plate and saw it was associated with a non-citizen. A pattern we regularly see, the plate was scanned after law enforcement racially profiled an indigenous family. Both of the parents were detained, leaving the four children in the care of the eldest who just celebrated her 18th birthday the day before.

Every day, ICE tears families apart, despite the pleas of crying children.