This article from ProPublica shares the story of Wilder Hilario Maldonado Cabrera, a six year-old boy from Honduras who had to appear in US immigration court alone and unrepresented following his separation from his father upon entering the US along the border with Mexico in June 2018. "The boy and his father had been separated on June 6," says the article, "after they illegally crossed the border and asked for asylum. Wilder was placed into temporary foster care. His father, Hilario Maldonado, was sent to detention. They’d only sporadically been able to speak on the telephone ever since."
According to the article, immigration authorities determined that Wilder's father was no eligible for asylum "but they refused to reunite him with his son while that decision was appealed because Maldonado, who lived in the United States more than a decade ago, had an old warrant for [driving under the influence] in Florida."
"It’s a charge that would almost never result in a loss of parental custody in a non-immigration context," according to the article, "but immigration lawyers say they have seen immigration authorities use such minor, nonviolent criminal records to justify separating immigrant parents from their children at the border."