Where Are The Girls Who Are Taken From Their Parents At The Border?

When a reporter asked her why the government has only released photos of the boys being held — "Where are the girls? Where are the young toddlers?" — Nielsen said, "I don’t know." She added that after 72 hours (she had previously said 48), most children are transferred from DHS (Department of Homeland Security) care to HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) care, effectively washing her own hands of the matter. The DHS reportedly has limited space (only about 2,700) beds to house families together, at three detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania.

"I don’t know what pictures you’re speaking about," Nielsen said when reporters pressed her, later adding, "I will look into that."

Meanwhile, where are the girls? What we do know, we know through stories that trickle out: The voice of a 6-year-old Salvadoran girl pleading to call her aunt as other children cry in the background. A 16-year-old girl teaching other kids how to change a little girl's diaper, because she had been separated from her parents and was now living in a chain-link cage with other children, "traumatized" and "curled up in a little ball."