Honduran girl on Time cover not separated from mother
Magazine defends photo as White House calls use ‘shameful’
NEW YORK – A crying Honduran girl depicted in a widely seen photograph that became a symbol for many of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies was not actually separated from her mother, U.S. government officials said Friday.
Time magazine used an image of the girl, by Getty Images photographer John Moore, on its cover this past week, next to a picture of a towering Trump. While Time corrected a story it had written about the photo, its top editor defended the cover.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was “shameful” that Democrats and the media exploited the photograph to push an agenda.
“She was not separated from her mom,” Sanders tweeted. “The separation here is from the facts.”
The photo spread widely as the discussion heated up of Trump’s since-reversed policy of separating parents who are caught illegally crossing into the United States from their children.
The government’s policy of not allowing photographs of children being detained heightened the impact of pictures about the immigration issue.
The girl’s picture, along with an audio file of crying children that was given to reporters at Pro Publica, helped galvanize public opinion against the administration’s policy.
The photo was taken June 12 by Moore, who was on patrol with U.S. border officials when they encountered the girl’s mother, identified as Sandra Sanchez. The girl was crying as officials searched Sanchez, who U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday had been deported from the United States once before.
“At no point did I ever say that the girl and her mother had definitely been separated,” Moore said. “But at the time I took the photo that was a very real possibility even for young children. I think I’ve been very clear from the start that the mother and daughter were taken away in the van together but that we didn’t know what would happen to them.”