[ cheers and applause ] this is "nightline." >> tonight, border battle. >> the border is going to be just as tough as it's been. >> president trump holding firm on his zero tolerance policy despite today's executive order. a stunning reversal. >> we're going to keep the families together. i didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated. >> but what about the thousands of children already split up from their parents? plus the family reunion. a young boy separated from his father in the immigration tug of war. kept in a foster home thousands of miles away. we're there for his journey back to guatemala and the homecoming months in the making.

and dracula city. >> dinner the torture chamber! >> in the mountains of transylvania, a town consumed by legend. >> i am dracula. >> our journey into the depths of dracula's castle. the centuries-old home of vlad the impaler. the maniacal killer who inspired the myth. but first the "nightline 5." >> i'm missing out on family outings because i can't find a bladder leakage product that fits. everything was too loose. depend fit flex feels tailored to me. >> more sizes for better comfort. depend flex fit underwear is guaranteed to be your best fit. digestive advantage probiotics help you stay strong even with digestive issues and 12 rowdy campers. its protein shell survives stomach acid 100 times better. where billions others struggle. digestive advantage. >> number one in just 60 seconds.

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good evening and thank you for joining us. i'm rebecca jarvis. after days of protests and debate, the president making a stunning reversal, ending the practice of separating children from their parents after they're caught crossing the u.s. border illegally. tonight we're with one family for a long overdue reunion as thousands more face an uncertain future. here's abc's geo benitez. >> today i signed an executive order. we're going toeep families together. but the border is going to be just as tough as it's been. >> reporter: after days of protests -- images that sparked outrage and mounting pressure, today president trump reacting signing an executive order to place an end to the separation of migrant families at the border. >> we are keeping a very

powerful border and it continues to be a zero tolerance. we have zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally. >> reporter: but for the thousands of migrant children that have been separated from their families, there's no telling how many more nights they will have to spend alone. how difficult is it to reunify them? >> when the family arrives, you have one immigration case. when you separate them, you then create two separate immigrations. so now the child or children have one case, the parent has another. the parent can get deported and their children left behind. >> reporter: it happened to 10-year-old samuel. he spent the last eight months away from his family. in his red hoodie and blue backpack, a final piggy back ride with the american foster family he's lived with since october. we were with him at the airport before his flight back to guatemala, where he will reunite

with his father who brought him here illegally and was deported. samuel's foster parents, karl and jen, are still fostering other children so we agreed not to show their faces. and we've been asked not to show samuel's face until he's reo reunited with his family. >> he was almost in shock. >> he was afraid to eat, his clothes were soiled, he wouldn't use the bathroom when he was transported here. so he had urinated and defecated in his clothing. >> samuel is just one of thousands of children who have experienced this trauma, traveling countless miles only to be separated from their family. according to customs and border protection, over 2,300 children were separated from their families between may 5th and june 9th. their separation as a result of the trump administration's zero tolerance policy crackdown on illegal border crossings that began last april. those separated children were placed in the care of the department of health and human services, while their parents remain in the custody of the department of homeland security.

but neither i.c.e. nor hhs have numbers on how many parents have already been deported or how many families have been reunited. one of the lifelines, maybe the number some children have committed to memory, like 6-year-old alison valencia from el salvador, seen here with her mother. after being separated, she begs a supervisor to call her aunt. alison's aunt telling pro publica the conversation with her 6-year-old kneels was the hardest moment in her life, adding, she's crying and begging me to go get her, she says i promise i'll behave but please get me out of here, i'm all alone. [ crying ] the haunting audio now a symbol of the suffering and confusion children endure when separated from their parents. >> child internment camps, that's what i said! >> reporter: sparking outrage among politicians.

the president had a closed-door meeting with house republicans to discuss immigration legislation. the president reportedly telling them that his daughter ivanka showed him images of children in detention facilities and encouraged him to end the policy. after exiting the meeting, he was confronted by several democratic congressmen. >> you're separating the children! mr. president, don't you have kids? >> reporter: today's signing a striking reversal, just days ago -- >> we can't do it through executive order. >> president trump did exactly what he said he could not and would not do, he ended this policy with a stroke of a pen. it was a stunning reversal. just days ago, he said he couldn't do this by executive order. yet that's exactly what he did, completely proving himself wrong. >> so i imagine that even with this executive order that was just signed, you still don't believe that immediately these families are going to be reunified? >> no. my initial reaction is really

gratified. they're going to stop taking children away. following that, you have all of these questions. there are some parents, they're at county jail. there parents are at a detention facility. then if the parent is in the detention facility, are we going to move the parent from a detention facility that is for adults to a detention facility that allows the parent to have a child? >> in a normal situation that gets messy. now we're talking about more than 2,300 kids. >> correct. my hope is that they would reunite them. >> reporter: for now the children remain separated. some of the youngest children are being held here in brownsville, texas. one of at least three so-called tender age facilities. a visiting doctor saying she found traumatized children, one crying inconsolably. this woman sends deacons to pray with girls in that shelter. >> every child gets up and begins to pray to god in a loud voice, please send me back to my parents, i want to see my mommy, i want to see my daddy.

>> reporter: other children have been transported to the remote countryside of southern texas. you can see it's on the other side of this green fencing here, there's a soccer field there with soccer goals. then the actual facility off in the distance. agencies like bethany christian services in michigan struggling to reunite these families who have been spread across the nation. >> what's new about this is we're not sure how long it would take to reunite a child with a parent who's in a detention center. and so we would need contact with that parent. usually when separations are unexpected, the parent may not have made a plan with another family member in the united states. would you take our child if we weren't available? or they maybe, you know, didn't prepare the child for that. >> reporter: it was bethany christian services who placed samuel with foster parents in michigan. >> i do hear stories about the detention facilities. they talk about mats on the floor. not a lot of food. and of course crying and fear.

and most often they come extraordinarily dirty, lice, all sorts of things. >> reporter: but those detention centers and the foster care are supposed to be temporary. >> the reason it took so long for samuel to be reunited with his father is that samuel had to go through the voluntary departure process. which means that an immigration judge had to re-rule on his petition for voluntary departure. and then we needed to coordinate his departure with the embassy from his country and with i.c.e. so that he was appropriately reunified with his dad and safely reunified with his dad. >> reporter: at the airport, a mix of emotions now that samuel will see his father again. samuel's foster family gets in their last kisses and promises that this good-bye isn't final. as an i.c.e. agent takes samuel through security, the 10-year-old without a family for his eight-hour journey. >> children separated from their parents will have to go through

getting that healing done. so the relationship with their family, with their parent, will they be able to trust that parent again? >> reporter: back in guatemala, his father waits in tears. he tells my colleague alex perez that his heart is hurting. he says he's happy his son will be home soon after those eight months apart. >> "i may look like i'm okay, but my heart has been hurting because of this," he says. >> reporter: finally the tearful look in his eyes, confusion on his face. the room filled with government officials. samuel overwhelmed. appearing shell shocked going back to a family he loves, having to leave the american family he also loves. for "nightline," i'm geo benitez in el paso, texas. >> our thanks to geo.

next, an adventure you can sink your teeth into. exploring dracula's castle in the heart of transylvania. castle in the heart of transylvania. le episodes of laughing or crying that are exaggerated or simply don't match how you feel, it can often lead to feeling misunderstood. this is called pseudobulbar affect, or pba. a condition that can occur from brain injury or certain neurologic conditions like stroke or dementia. nuedexta can make a difference by significantly reducing pseudobulbar affect episodes. tell you doctor about medicines you take. some can't be taken with nuedexta. nuedexta is not for people with certain heart conditions. serious side effects may occur. don't take with maois or if you are allergic to dextromethorphan or quinidine. tell your doctor if you have bleeding or bruising. stop if muscle twitching, confusion, fever, or shivering occurs with antidepressants. side effects may include diarrhea, dizziness, cough, vomiting, weakness or ankle swelling.

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he's a ruthless bloodsucker based on a brutal killer. and people can't get enough of him. this year over 1 million tourists will make the voyage to castle bran, home to the world's most loved and feared vampire, dracula. here's abc's terry moran. >> reporter: we're in transylvania.

in the frost-covered mountains of romania. the impaled heart of vampire country. to find the region's most famous resident. the myth, the legend -- >> i am dracula. >> reporter: count dracula. immortalized in film and culture throughout the last century, from the iconic 1931 "dracula" starring bela lugosi and that unforgettable voice. >> listen to them. children of the night. >> children of the night, listen to their music. >> reporter: so mine isn't very good. there are perhaps only a handful of characters throughout history known as well as the creepy count. appearing in over 200 films. >> dracula is the most portrayed character in cinema. there have been more draculas than any other character. >> reporter: inspiring generations of would-be vampires. >> give my regards to frost.

>> when you get into the "blade" character, wesley snipes, robert pattinson and the "twilight" vampires, they all are measured against that original idea of dracula. >> you'll know that i am called the count -- >> reporter: he's been a caricature for everything from "sesame street" to kids' breakfast cereals. >> the chocolatey marshmallow in my count chocula cereal -- >> outside of santa claus you'd be hard pressed to see one that's been as commercially and regularly exploited as dracula. >> reporter: which is why we've come here to this castle high on a cliff in the middle of the carpathian mountains. >> let's go up. four floors and 57 rooms. you are now inside the most popular and famous tourist attraction in romania. bran castle, better known in the world as dracula castle.

>> count dracula, loosely based on the legend of vlad dracula, vlad the impaler, the notorious ruler of this region in the 1400s. known for his violent and torturous methods. suppressing dissidents. >> when it comes to dracula, he was a real person, a real historical character. this castle was a castle built and used by local kings as a military castle, including dracula's family. >> vlad dracula was a horrible, horrible human being. being a vampire would be an improvement over what he was. >> reporter: it was 400 years later when irish author bram stoker penned the iconic 1897 novel "dracula" that the legend of dracula the vampire was born. >> the meaning of the name dracula is the "the devil's son." >> reporter: this being dracula's castle, it comes with the bloodcurling creepiness you might expect. but still, tourists flock to this place.

>> last year we had 1 million tourists. >> reporter: in some ways, dracula is transylvania's main export. >> i think you'd have to go on a level of a "star wars" to look at how big dracula would be as a total brand. it's probably worth in the billions. >> reporter: some companies offered dracula-themed tours for around $1,400 a person. at the base of the castle is the town of bran, population 5,100. it's become known as dracula city. everywhere you look, there's dracula. dracula mugs. dracula wine. >> they say it's merlot. i'm saying it's blood. >> reporter: dracula shirts. >> bvf, best vampire friend. >> areas like that are like disneyland for dracula. >> get out now while you still can! >> reporter: this dracula-themed haunted house in the middle of

town, a tribute to all things that go bump in the night. >> aah, whoa, you got me! i love a good haunted house. >> reporter: janusz solinsky is the owner of this tourist attraction. he's lived in transylvania over 10 years. when you came here, how much of this dracula village was here? >> there was nothing here. >> reporter: you might call him the godfather of dracula city. in addition to his haunted house, he owns a fully immersive five-day movie plex. the largest restaurant in town. >> you've resurrected dracula. >> in some ways. i was the first one promoting dracula here, yes. >> has he ever thanked you? >> not yet. >> i don't think i'd like to know. >> i wouldn't mind it. i would be protected in some way with the garlic. >> put some garlic. >> reporter: which reminds me. we need garlic. i'm going to survive the night here, i'll need some of my own. garlic. let's get a lot.

garlic. that's just one way to defeat dracula. another, a wooden stake. i wonder if this would kill dracula? this will work. >> that's a pencil. >> i'm calling that a stake. you've saved my life. >> reporter: as evening falls over transylvania, we head to our quarters for the night. now we're going from dracula's castle up the mountain to what you might call dracula's townhouse. it shows how widespread the dracula business is. the house of dracula. i've got my garlic. i've got my stake. i'm going to survive this night. at this dracula-themed hotel, we enjoy some dinner. dinner the torture chamber. ha ha ha! why do i feel i'm being led to my doom? oh, i haven't seen a rack

since -- who knows when. on the menu tonight. this is very nice. they put some garlic on a table for you. then a quick check outside my room for vampires. but alas, this working father of four needs his rest. 11:00 p.m., bedtime. i'm ready. i got my garlic over here. i got my wooden stake just in case. i got the holy bible. the lord is my shepherd. come get me, dracula! for "nightline," i'm terry moran in transylvania, romania. next, the bear breakout. trapped in a car, a smashing

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finally tonight, an unusual parking violation caught on camera. a sheriff's deputy in lake tahoe, california, unleashing a beast, breaking a car window to free a bear. the bear had been trapped in the car, destroying the interior so badly that the doors couldn't be unlocked. making a great escape into the comfort of the forest. where he belongs. thank you for watching "nightline." and as always, we're online at our "nightline" facebook page. good night, america. our phones are more than just phones.up! they're pocket-sized personal trainers.

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