Separating families at the border was more widespread, began earlier, records show

A woman named Mirian and her 18-month-old son reached Brownsville, Texas, early this year after fleeing Honduras, where the military had tear-gassed their home. She made her way to a port of entry and asked for asylum, according to court records.

Mirian had her identification, her son's birth certificate, which listed her as his mother, his hospital birth record and his vaccination records.

Border officers took the records, and then told her they would be taking her boy, she said in a sworn court declaration. They walked her out to a government car, told her to put him in a car seat and closed the door.

It was three months before they were reunited.

The Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy of criminally charging people who cross the border illegally led to thousands of children being separated from their parents.

But the practice of separating families appears to have begun accelerating last year, long before zero tolerance was announced in the spring. Among