How Trump's border policy has changed the mood among many Americans
The latest opinion polls suggest the American people are finding it difficult to accept the president's merciless approach.
Wednesday 20 June 2018 19:11, UK
There was standing room only in the courtroom on the eighth floor of McAllen鈥檚 District Courthouse.
Every space on the benches was filled by 74 defendants - all of them arrested for illegally entering the US in recent days.
They were shackled at the ankles. When they were asked if they swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but, one answered "yes", the rest said "si".
All had waived their right to a trial and accepted they were likely to be deported back to their home country.
But Donald Trump's zero tolerance policy on illegal border crossings is being witnessed here in south Texas.
The judge, J Scott Hacker, has seen hundreds of detainees in recent days and many have protested that their children have been taken from them. They pleaded to know when they would be reunited.
Judge Hacker could offer no guarantees, just that "hopefully" things would work out.
If the president's policy at the border has become a political firestorm, it is the practical human cost that occupies those caught up in its reality.
How can they check on children who have been taken away? How will they find them when the time comes?
Already there are stories of parents who have been deported back to Central America while their children remain held in the US.
It is an illustration of the impact of this policy that, even if Trump reversed it tomorrow, it would take months to unpick.
Some believe the damage is permanent.
A few families slip through the new Trump net. Those with the smallest of children are among them, simply grateful to be free, even though they will face a court date one day.
At the Catholic Charities' Humanitarian Respite Centre in McAllen, they are helping those families find somewhere to go.
As a small group watch a World Cup match on television, Sister Norma Pimental explains how Trump's policy has changed the mood.
"People are scared," she says.
"Our laws need to reflect our respect for life and our respect for human dignity. We must be able to help establish laws that really respond to the pressing need of today in a very humane way."
The latest opinion polls suggest the American people agree with her.
But Trump has framed immigration as being a choice between allowing in everyone who arrives at the border, or locking them up as criminals. Previous presidents have disagreed.
And it is Trump's Republican colleagues who have been panicked into trying to find a solution, aware of the public relations catastrophe this story has unleashed.
Democrats believe the president could reverse the chaos with the stroke of a pen.
Whatever happens, it is unlikely to come quickly and there are thousands of people in limbo in the meantime.