'How have we come to this?' Attorney who released audio of children wailing as they are separated from their families in an immigration detention center says the policy is 'traumatizing and abusing young refugees'

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An attorney who released harrowing audio of immigrants aged four to 12 wailing as they were being separated from their families at a detention center has slammed the policy for 'traumatizing and abusing' already vulnerable children.

Jennifer Harbury claimed on Tuesday many of the detained children were the sons and daughters of refugees who had fled drug-related violence and threats from cartels in southern and central America.

'I'm astounded that America of all places, my father having arrived at Ellis Island also frightened out of his wits at age 11, would stoop to traumatizing and abusing children of refugees,' she told CBS.

'How have we come to this?' Harbury asked, before explaining how she received the tape from the whistleblower of 'impeccable integrity' inside a detention facility near the Mexican border.

'The whistleblower did in fact make that tape recording in person and brought it to me,' she said. 

Harbury said she would not release the name of the detention facility to protect the identity of the whistleblower, but provided some more details. 

'The place in the facility is where children have been brought after they were separated from their parents,' she said. 

'Those are the small children like age 12 down to 4 that you hear on the tape. There are also some teenagers that fled the cartels, for example, ran for their lives, and they're unaccompanied for that reason and they're also in the back of that room.' 

During the eight-minute tape, published on Monday by ProPublica, children are heard screaming 'Mami' and 'Papa' just moments before the border agent drowns out their sobs with a joke. 

'Well, we have an orchestra here,' he's heard saying. 'What's missing is a conductor.'

Harbury said ProPublica was able to identify one of the children as six-year-old Alison Jimena Valencia Madrid, who was separated from her mother last week at a US Customs and Border Protection facility.

The little girl was heard repeatedly asking for some to call her aunt, giving her cellphone number.

When a ProPublica reporter spoke to the aunt she confirmed the child had been separated from her family and locked up. 

Jennifer Harbury claimed on Tuesday the Trump administration's policy was 'traumatizing' young immigrants, many of whom she said were refugees fleeing threats from cartels in south and central America

On Friday, it was revealed that nearly 2,000 children were separated from adults at the border between mid-April and the end of May. Those children (pictured) are now living in detention centers along the US-Mexico border

During a White House press briefing on Monday, Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, claimed she had not heard the audio. 

When she was asked whether or not she had seen the photos of the children in cages, Nielsen said: 'I would reference you to our standards.'

DailyMail.com reached out to US Customs and Border Protection, but a request for comment was not immediately returned. 

Trump may discuss the policy at a  meeting late Tuesday afternoon with House Republicans.

The audio was released just a day after it was revealed that border agents have reportedly been telling illegal immigrant parents that they are taking their children 'for a bath' before separating them. 

Anne Chandler, the director of the Houston office of Tahirih Justice Center said she's spoken with several parents who were told their children were going to get washed, before guards informed them they would never see their kids again.

For nearly eight minutes, children are heard crying for their parents as a callous border agent cracks jokes inside what is believed to be an immigration facility. The heartbreaking audio was of six-year-old, Alison Jimena Valencia Madrid (right) and other children in the facility 

Throughout the audio Alison and other children are repeatedly heard screaming 'Mami' and 'Papa' just moments before the border agent drowns out their sobs with a joke

'Well, we have an orchestra here,' the agent is heard saying. 'What's missing is a conductor'

She made the stunning claims as heartbreaking photos were released showing have inside of a processing center in Texas, where illegal immigrant children are taken. 

On Friday, it was revealed that nearly 2,000 children were separated from adults at the border between mid-April and the end of May.

Those children are now living in detention centers along the US-Mexico border. 

'The officers say, 'I'm going to take your child to get bathed.' That's one we see again and again. 'Your child needs to come with me for a bath,'' Chandler told Texas Monthly. 

'The child goes off, and in a half an hour, twenty minutes, the parent inquires, 'Where is my five-year-old? Where's my seven-year-old? This is a long bath.' And they say, 'You won't be seeing your child again.''

Chandler said that in some cases agents simply tell the parents that they are taking their children away.

'And when the parent asks, 'When will we get them back?' they say, 'We can't tell you that,'' she said.  

During a White House press briefing, Kirstjen Nielsen (pictured), the Secretary of Homeland Security, claimed she had not heard the audio

The audio was released just a day after it was revealed that border agents have reportedly been telling illegal immigrant parents that they are taking their children 'for a bath' before separating them 

Anne Chandler, the director of the Houston office of Tahirih Justice Center said she's spoken with several parents who said they were told their children were going to get a bath before they were separated

Chandler said the officers also tell the parents that they are going to 'prosecuted' or  that they aren't 'welcome in this country'. 

In May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a 'zero tolerance' policy in which all those apprehended entering the US illegally, including those seeking asylum, would be criminally charged, which generally leads to children being separated from their parents. 

The policy has drawn condemnation from medical professionals, religious leaders and immigration activists, who warn that some children could suffer lasting psychological trauma. 

But nonetheless, the children are separated from their parents, held in government facilities, released to adult sponsors or placed in temporary foster care.

Heartbreaking photos showed the inside of the largest Border Patrol processing station in the US, which is located in McAllen, Texas. The US Border Patrol allowed reporters to briefly visit the facility on Sunday.

Children were seen sleeping side-by-side in a cell inside the McAllen detention center, where one teen says she has been changing a baby's diaper, who she doesn't know, because the baby was separated from her family

Inside the old warehouse, hundreds of children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing. 

One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water and bags of chips.

Children were seen lying on dark green mats with large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets. 

Other photos show children in single-file line and sitting next to one another. 

One teenager told an advocate who visited that she was helping care for a young child she didn't know because the child's aunt was somewhere else in the facility. 

She said she had to show others in her cell how to change the girl's diaper.

More than 1,100 people were inside the large, dark facility that's divided into separate wings for unaccompanied children, adults on their own, and mothers and fathers with children. 

The cages in each wing open out into common areas to use portable restrooms. The overhead lighting in the warehouse stays on around the clock. 

According to the Border Patrol, close to 200 people inside the facility were minors unaccompanied by a parent. 

Another 500 were 'family units,' parents and children. Many adults who crossed the border without legal permission could be charged with illegal entry and placed in jail, away from their children.    

Other photos show children in single-file line and sitting next to one another like 'caged-animals'

The McAllen facility is reportedly where more kids are separated from their parents than anywhere else in the US

Inside the old warehouse, hundreds of children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing

About 1,100 illegal immigrants (pictured) are being held at McAllen detention center in crowded conditions, including children who have been separated from their families

The McAllen facility is reportedly where more kids are separated from their parents than anywhere else in the US. 

Administration officials have defended the tactic as necessary to secure the border and suggested it would act as a deterrent to illegal immigration, while Trump has sought to blame Democrats, saying their support for passage of a broader immigration bill would end the separations.

Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the head of the Department of Homeland Security even bashed the media on Sunday for 'misreporting'.

'This misreporting by Members, press & advocacy groups must stop. It is irresponsible and unproductive. As I have said many times before, if you are seeking asylum for your family, there is no reason to break the law and illegally cross between ports of entry,' she tweeted.

'We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period,' Nielsen added. 

'As a mother, as a Catholic, as somebody who has got a conscience. ... I will tell you that nobody likes this policy,' White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. 

Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the head of the Department of Homeland Security even bashed the media on Sunday for 'misreporting' information regarding the detention centers

'You saw the president (say) on camera that he wants this to end.' 

Democrats have accused Trump of effectively turning the children into political hostages to secure stricter immigration measures, such as funding for a US-Mexico border wall.

'Stop lying to the American people. This is your policy,' Democratic US Representative Hakeem Jeffries said in New Jersey.

Democratic Sen Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who was denied entry earlier this month to children's shelter, said: 'Those kids inside who have been separated from their parents are already being traumatized.'

'It doesn't matter whether the floor is swept and the bedsheets tucked in tight,' he added. 

In Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for people trying to enter the US, Border Patrol officials argue that they have to crack down on migrants and separate adults from children as a deterrent to others.

'When you exempt a group of people from the law ... that creates a draw,' said Manuel Padilla, the Border Patrol's chief agent here. 'That creates the trends right here.'

Democratic lawmakers (including Reps Jerrold Nadler, center, and Carolyn Maloney, second from right) tried to gain access to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey on Sunday where children have been detained

Reps Albio Spires (left) and Bill Pascrell (right) try to gain access to the ICE detention facility

Agents running the holding facility - generally known as 'Ursula' for the name of the street it's on - said everyone detained is given adequate food, access to showers and laundered clothes, and medical care. 

People are supposed to move through the facility quickly. Under US law, children are required to be turned over within three days to shelters funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Padilla said agents in the Rio Grande Valley have allowed families with children under the age of five to stay together in most cases.

Democratic lawmakers joined hundreds of protesters outside an immigration detention facility in New Jersey on Sunday for a Father's Day demonstration against the Trump administration's practice of separating children from their parents.

'This must not be who we are as a nation,' said Representative Jerrold Nadler, one of seven members of Congress from New York and New Jersey who met with five detainees inside the facility, including three who said they had young relatives removed from their care after seeking asylum at the border.

The lawmakers in Elizabeth waited about 90 minutes to gain access to the detention facility, which is operated for the US government by a private contractor. 

Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy generally leads to children being separated from their parents. The image above which was released on Sunday shows a child eating at an unaccompanied alien children program shelter in Brownsville, Texas

Democrats in the US House of Representatives will introduce legislation this week aimed at stopping separations, mirroring a similar Senate bill sponsored by Democrat Dianne Feinstein. Children are pictured at the detention center in Brownsville 

In South Texas on Sunday, several Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Jeff Merkley, toured detention facilities to call attention to the policy, while Representative Beto O'Rourke, who is running for the US Senate in Texas, said he would march with protesters to the border.

'This is inhumane,' O'Rourke told CNN. 'I'd like to say it's un-American, but it's happening right now in America.'

Some moderate Republicans have also called on Trump to stop the separations. 

Senators Susan Collins and Jeff Flake wrote to White House officials on Saturday seeking more information on the policy.

'It is inconsistent with our American values to separate these children from their parents,' Collins said on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday.

A spokeswoman for Melania Trump told CNN on Sunday that the first lady 'hates to see children separated from their families' and hopes lawmakers from both parties can agree on immigration reform, in what was a rare public statement on a policy issue from the president's wife. 

Her 'Be Best' platform, unveiled in May, is dedicated to children's well-being.

Democrats in the US House of Representatives will introduce legislation this week aimed at stopping separations, mirroring a similar Senate bill sponsored by Democrat Dianne Feinstein. 

But neither bill has much hope of securing enough support in the Republican-controlled Congress, let alone surviving Trump's veto pen.