Trump’s administration’s policy of separating families who are crossing the US border has received a ton of backlash. Blowback continues to hit Trump over his policy, but this time in the form of another Time magazine cover. And the new cover depicts the brutal honesty of how many people in our country are indifferent over the cruelty of family separation.
President Trump is seen towering over a young girl in tears, after she’s been most likely separated from her mother, and his face is completely void of emotion. The cover combines an image of the president and the now-iconic photograph taken by Pulitzer Prize winning photographer John Moore of a sobbing little girl while her mother is being searched by border agents in McAllen, Texas. It’s most likely that after the picture was taken the mother and daughter were taken to a processing center, separated, and taken to separate facilities.
Welcome to America — new Time magazine cover … pic.twitter.com/5cKsLyEJwY
— John Wagner (@WPJohnWagner) June 21, 2018
“This one was tough for me. As soon as it was over, they were put into a van. I had to stop and take deep breaths,” Moore told Time. “All I wanted to do was pick her up. But I couldn’t.”
The image is also paired with a cover story by Karl Vick, “A Reckoning After Trump’s Border Separation Policy: What Kind Of Country Are We?”, which discusses the erosion of our traditional norms and values by the current president.
According to NBC News, the rest of Moore’s photos shows what happens before they were taken to the center. Moore’s photos show the two, and other women and children migrants from Honduras rafting across the Rio Grande to get to Texas. The photos then show the woman holding and breastfeeding her child, as she takes out her shoe laces. The Washington Post reports that shoe laces are confiscated because Border Patrol considers them to be a personal item. The now viral image shows the little girls reaction to being separated from her mother’s arms, even for just a couple minutes.
“The mother stoically had her hands against the vehicle, and the girl was crying. Neither were saying words. Nothing could be said with her. She needed to be with her mother,” Moore told the Washington Post.
This isn’t Trump’s first Time cover, as he has appeared in 15 in all. In 2016, he was even named the magazines person of year. But this time, his cover is a clear condemnation over his indifference to an inhumane policy that he passed.
The cover will hit the newsstands on July 2nd.