Judge explodes over missing children: 'They take your kids and you get nothing? [View all]

A public defender who handles immigration cases said the government has no answers for parents separated from their children at the border — and no apparent intention of ever reuniting those shattered families.

Erik Hanshew, an assistant federal public defender in El Paso, Texas, published a column in the Washington Post describing the nightmarish process parents must go through to find their children.

“The client meetings have been crushing,” Hanshew wrote. “One man sobs, asking how his small child could defend himself in a detention facility. One cries so uncontrollably, he is hardly able to speak. Question after crying question piles up from one client to the next.”

“At one point, (the judge) slammed his hand on the desk, sending a pen flying,” Hanshew wrote. “This type of emotional display is unheard of in federal court. I can’t understand this, the judge said. If someone at the jail takes your wallet, they give you a receipt. They take your kids, and you get nothing? Not even a slip of paper?”