Time magazine forced to clarify cover of crying migrant girl

Magazine admits that U.S. Border Patrol agents never took this little girl away from her mother

Time Magazine has issued a correction for its widely-publicized cover story about a crying Honduran girl that has become symbolic for the Trump administration’s policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents.

Time Magazine thegrio.com
(Photo:TIME Photo-Illustration. Photographs by Getty Images)

Time Magazine has issued a correction for its widely-publicized cover story about a crying Honduran girl that has become symbolic for President Trump’s administration’s policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents.

The magazine said Friday that 2-year-old Yanela Hernandez, who was reportedly separated from her mother, was never apart from her mother. The correction came two days after Trump signed an executive order to end the forced separations of children from their parents as part of “zero tolerance,” immigration policy.

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“The original version of this story misstated what happened to the girl in the photo after she was taken from the scene,” the magazine said about the error at the bottom of the cover story. “The girl was not carried away screaming by U.S. Border Patrol agents; her mother picked her up and the two were taken away together.”

Longtime Getty Images photographer John Moore, who took the photo, noticed the error and contacted Time about it, the magazine said, according to AOL News. The girl’s father, Denis Varela Hernandez, told the Daily Mail onThursday that a Honduran official confirmed his daughter and her mother were being held in a detention center.

Despite the mistake, Time’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal said on Friday that the magazine is still standing by its reporting. He said that the June 12 photo “became the most visible symbol of the ongoing immigration debate in America,” for a reason.

“Under the policy enforced by the (Trump) administration, prior to its reversal this week, those who crossed the border illegally were criminally prosecuted, which in turn resulted in the separation of children and parents,” he said in a statement. “Our cover and our reporting capture the stakes of this moment.”

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The correction didn’t stop Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders taking to Twitter to lash out at the magazine.

“It’s shameful that dems and the media exploited this photo of a little girl to push their agenda. She was not separated from her mom. The separation here is from the facts,” she tweeted. “Dems should join POTUS and fix our broken immigration system. #ChangetheLaws.”

The debate continues.

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