WASHINGTON – Sixteen-year-old Billy’s friends at his rural high school in the south don’t know that he was one of the thousands of children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. then-President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy.

At school, where he plays football and soccer, Billy doesn’t talk about what he’s been through – that his father was told six years ago that Billy was given up for adoption and feared he would never see his son again.

With the United States on the threshold of the elections that could put Trump back in office, Billy wants people to know that what happened to him and several thousand other children is still reverberating. Some families have not been reunited, and many of those in the US have temporary status and fear Trump will win. promised mass deportations.

“It was a very painful thing that happened to us,” said Billy, who was 9 at the time. He did not want his full name or state of residence identified for fear of jeopardizing his family’s asylum claim.

Trump did his immigration views central to his campaignaccusing the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, of failing to secure the southern border. Harris didn’t make immigration a campaign issue, but he raised Trump zero tolerance policyone of his most controversial immigration actions as president.

The Trump administration has proposed to prosecute all adults who cross the border illegally. Parents were separated from their children, who were transferred to shelters nationwide.

Trump and his campaign have not specifically said whether he would revive the practice if he wins on Nov. 5. He has previously defended her, including arguing without evidence during one Univision interview last year that it “stopped people from coming by the hundreds of thousands.”

“President Trump will restore his effective immigration policies, implement new crackdowns that will send shock waves to all the world’s criminal traffickers, and marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest-ever deportation operation of illegal criminals , drug dealers and human traffickers in American History,” said Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

The Harris campaign held an event this month with children who have been separated from their families to draw attention to Trump’s policies.

Billy, who spoke at the event, is part of a group of children sharing their stories in short videos on social media to highlight the zero tolerance policy. Billy and his father also visited lawmakers in Washington.

Billy told The Associated Press that while he doesn’t usually talk about his experiences, he and others “make sure we raise our voices and share our stories” so something like this never happens again.

Most families who were separated years ago are in legal limbo, with their immigration status in doubt. Under an agreement announced last year between the families and the Biden administration, the families have two years to apply for asylum in a more favorable process.

As the election nears, advocates say they have heard from families who have been separated expressing fears that Trump, if elected, will follow through on his promises to deport millions of people.

“The families we serve are scared and have a lot of questions about what a new Trump administration would mean for them,” said Anilú Chadwick Soltes, pro bono director for Together & Free, an organization launched in 2018 in response to the zero-tolerance policy . . The group works to help separated families.

The The 2023 agreement barred future administrations from using family separation as a widespread policy by 2031. But advocates have concerns.

Christie Turner-Herbas, senior counsel for Kids in Need of Defense, said she worries about exceptions to the policy being exploited and says there needs to be political will to implement it.

Of the Trump administration POLICY deviated from the general practice of keeping families with children together when coming to the southern border.

The goal was to deter people by prosecuting everyone who crossed the border. For families, parents were prosecuted. The children, who cannot be held in custody, were treated as unaccompanied minors and transferred to shelters.

After a shoutTrump said on June 20, 2018 that he was the conclusion of the policy. Six days later, a judge ordered the government to reunited families, from which thousands had been separated. The agencies did not have their computer systems properly connected, which does difficult to reunite families. Many parents were deported, complicating matters further.

When Democrat Joe Biden became president, he created a task force on family reunification. Based on the efforts of groups suing the Trump administration, identified task force approximately 5,000 children have been separated, and approximately 1,400 are not confirmed to be reunited with their families.

Some are in process. Others are believed to have gathered in the US but are not coming forward, possibly fearing government interaction. For others, there is no valid contact information, so the search continues.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration that helped end family separations, puts the number of separated children closer to 5,500.

Lee Gelernt, lead counsel in that lawsuit, said the ACLU estimates that as many as 1,000 families are still separated.

“Some young children have now spent almost their entire lives without their parents,” he said.

The task force runs a website where families can register to be reunited and works with the International Organization for Migration to help those families with things like getting a passport to come to the US. The task force director traveled to the families’ countries of origin to make radio announcements in search of the parents.

Advocacy groups have also been essential.

Justice in Motion, which is working with lawyers in Mexico and Central America to track down the parents, uses a last known address and talks to neighbors, local businesses, hospitals, schools — anyone who might know where that person is.

But they’re stuck with poor records that are now out of date, said Nan Schivone, the organization’s legal director.

Separated families and children struggled with the fall.

For Efrain, 22, there was guilt. Efrain said his father didn’t want to bring him to the US in 2018, but he pushed for it. When they finally parted, Efrain wondered if it would have been better if his father had been alone.

His father was sent back to Guatemala. Efrain, who did not want his full name used for fear of repercussions, was placed in a shelter for unaccompanied children for about five months.

His father has diabetes and Efrain worried about his health. When they were able to video call after Efrain left the shelter, he noticed how much weaker his father looked.

Three years later, they reunited at the Atlanta airport. Since then, Efrain says he’s been trying to make up for lost time. He says he struggles with anxiety and loneliness, echoing the isolation he felt after being separated from his father.

“It’s like I’m alone in a closed room,” he said in Spanish.

Meanwhile, Billy’s father still cries when he talks years later about what he and his son went through. He believes that people have forgotten what happened and the trauma of the families.

Billy says he’s found purpose in sharing what he’s experienced: “I know my story holds a lot of power.”

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Associated Press reporter Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.