this is "nightline." >> tonight, fate of the children. the first look inside a migrant child tender age shelter. the first lady and a surprise tour of a shelter herself. >> it really bothered her to be looking at this. we're all bothered by this. >> how melania and ivanka played a role in convincing the president to stop separating families. now the long road ahead for the thousands of children already on their own. plus mother murder? >> the boys were my world. they were my joy. they were what i lived for. >> accused of killing her two sons, painted as a monster by the prosecution -- >> here's a woman who has just lost her children, and she's literally dancing on their

graves. >> now a new series examining the case on death row in her last defense. could never before tested evidence save her life? and connor comeback minus roseanne but with all your other favorite family members. the new spinoff coming to abc this fall. but first the "nightline 5." >> my digestive system used to make me feel sluggish. but those days are over. now i take metamucil every day. it naturally traps and removes the waste that weighs me down so i feel lighter. try metamucil and begin to feel like lighter feels like. fiber things made with 100% natural psyllium fiber. a great-tasting and easy way to start your day at walmart and walmart.com. >> n

good evening. thank you for joining us. the first lady grabbing headlines today making a surprise visit to a migrant children's shelter surveying the conditions. tonight a source familiar with the matter tells abc news that recently, hundreds of families who were separated have been reunited in the wake of the president's executive order. for the time being the department of homeland security has stopped referring family members for prosecution. here's abc's geo benitez. >> i'd also like to ask you how i can help, to these children to reunite with their families as quickly as possible. >> reporter: on a surprise trip to mcallen, texas, first lady melania trump visited the front lines in her husband's battle over illegal immigration. talking to workers at the new hope children's migrant shelter, meeting some of the children who have been torn from their

families. the first lady spent a little over an hour peppering workers with questions. >> those children, how many times they speak with their relatives or families per week, for example? >> well, the children are allowed to communicate with their family twice a week. they get to have a phone call. >> reporter: the shelter is home to 55 children. 27 boys and 28 girls ages 12 to 17. most came from guatemala and were unaccompanied minors. only six of them separated from family. >> this is a classic role for a first lady. i think melania trump knows how to play that role very effectively. go down there, ask some questions, interact with people, speak to the cameras, to focus the attention of the country where she believes it should be focused right now, on the plight and the circumstances of the children separated under this policy. >> reporter: her spokeswoman says the trip was melania's idea. >> my wife, our first lady, is down now at the border. because it really bothered her to be looking at this and to

seeing it as it bothered me, as it bothered everybody at this table. >> reporter: the shelter the first lady visited was vastly different from the ones that have saturated the american consciousness for the past week, complete with cages and children shrouded in mylar blankets. first daughter ivanka trump was apparently so moved by those images she reportedly showed them to her father, encouraging him to end the separation policy. today she tweeted, now that an eo has been signed ending family separation at the border, it is time to focus on swiftly and safely reuniting the families that have been separated. >> his wife and daughter were only the closest people to him making an argument that became overwhelming. he saw this on television, he heard the voices, he knew how this was playing. in this case his vaunted instincts failed him. >> reporter: whether private pressure or the public outcry, yesterday president trump signed an executive order ending the practice of separating migrant parents who are crossing the border illegally from their children. it's been reported that hundreds

of families have already been reunited. but the president is not giving up on his zero tolerance stance. >> you took zero tolerance away, everybody would come right now. they'd be getting their little belongings, unfortunately, and they would be heading up. you would be -- you would have a run on this country the likes of which nobody's ever seen. >> reporter: shelters across the country are filled with migrant children. today the government releasing new images from some of the 100 shelters where children sit in limbo, media unable to film inside. in florida, children taking art classes. in virginia, a math lesson. then soccer. for the first time we see a baby being rocked by a caretaker at a so-called tender age shelter. according to customs and border protection, more than 2,300 children were separated from their families between may 5th and june 9th. 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. >> you've got a big legal mess here. on one hand zero tolerance policy which basically says, we don't want to release people pending trial. and you've got a requirement that they're only allowed to keep someone with a kid there for 20 days. and there's going to be a tension between those two. >> reporter: the chaos compounded by the administration's mixed messages. >> we can't do it through executive order. >> we are keeping families together. >> reporter: even the first lady's trip, meant to send a message of compassion, instead sewed the threads of confusion as these photos surfaced, the message on the back of her jacket, "i really don't care do you." her spokes woman saying, it's a jacket, there was no hidden message. after today's important visit to texas, i hope this isn't what the media is going to choose to focus on. >> this was inexapplicable. images matter. this was about images and this is among the images that come out. she made a decision to wear that

jacket. whether she thought it through, whether people around her thought it through, that was what she chose as an article of clothing. that becomes a major piece of the story. because the message was what it was, it becomes its own thing. >> reporter: the president with his own take saying the jacket's message refers to the fake news media. melania has learned how dishonest they are and she truly no longer cares. but a war of words does little to soothe motors like ibis guzman, detained in seattle. her 5-year-old son nearly 1,800 miles away in a san antonio shelter. from jail she says she imagines how desperate her son is all alone and she is fighting to reunite with him. but as of tonight no answers. other separated children have begun showing up in cities around the country, including new york. last night, seven boys, hooded with heads down, walked through laguardia airport after arriving on a flight from texas. apparently unaccompanied migrant

children. new york city mayor bill de blasio said the federal government never told him they were sending separated children to his city. >> i've never seen anything like this. >> reporter: mayors from across the country, including de blasio, descending upon that tent city in torreal, texas, demanding families be reunited immediately. >> people are demanding a change and it cannot be ignored. if it won't happen in washington, we will make it happen. >> reporter: on capitol hill. >> the bill is not passed. >> reporter: the latest immigration reform bill failed to pass. >> congress has been paralyzed on the issue of immigration for more than a generation. president trump has not been able to break that logjam. >> reporter: inside the u.s. capitol, dozens of young children protesting in silence, wrapped in those same mylar blankets seen in those detention centers. while most agree children shouldn't suffer, some like cattle rancher roberto escobar in texas say something must be done to address illegal

immigration. >> they come in here illegally. and we, the taxpayers, wind up footing the bill for everything starting from education, food, clothing, housing, you name it. health care. who's going to pay for all of that? we are. and i don't think that's right. >> reporter: this just-released cover of "time" magazine a reminder that the fallout over the trump administration's family separation policy may be lasting. for "nightline," i'm geo benitez in el paso, texas. next, a woman on death row for killing her two sons. but she says it wasn't her. ulces or crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and

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>> darley rutier has been on death row over 20 years for a crime she says she did not commit. it started one night she says an intruder attacked her and her children in her home with a did 95. she was convicted of their murders. now with the introduction of previously untested evidence, could chefshe have a chance at freedom? >> reporter: it was a case that both captivated and horrified the nation. a young texas mother, darley rutier, sentenced to death after the brutal stabbing murders of her two young sons. >> darren believes he's married to an innocent woman. >> when they were telling me that i had done this, i was in shock. i was completely blind-sided. just -- i couldn't even grasp

what they were telling me. >> reporter: she's always maintained her innocence. now more than 20 years later, the controversial case is the subject of an abc docu-series "the last defense" from executive producer viola davis that explores whether she should have been put on death row in the first place. >> her conviction is based on problematic evidence. >> reporter: attorneys vanessa podkin and aida lesinring were legal consultants to "the last defense." >> i know she shouldn't have been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. >> reporter: darren rutier is darley's ex-husband and father of her children. >> darley is 100% innocent. the truth is always going to be there. it's still there now. >> reporter: on june 6th, 1996, in a quiet suburb of dallas, texas, 26-year-old darley rutier made a frantic call to police. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> somebody came in here -- they

broke in -- >> ma'am? >> they just stabbed me and my children -- >> what? >> they just stabbed me and my children, my little boys! >> who did? >> they're dying! >> i was asleep upstairs. i didn't hear a sound from the boys, i didn't hear a sound from darley until she started screaming. >> reporter: officers who arrived at the house found a gruesome scene. the two boys, damon and devin, stabbed to death. darley herself had multiple stab wounds but quickly recovered. >> she had a gash on her arm that cut to the bone. she had a slash across her throat that very narrowly missed her carotid artery. she very nearly died that night. >> reporter: just days later, the grief-stricken couple laid their two boys to rest. their quiet community gripped with fear. a killer still on the loose. >> it's scary. to think that, you know -- i don't think they had any suspects yet. >> when the police were there,

they saw a cut screen in the garage. which seems to indicate that someone cut the screen from the outside, stepped through the screen, into the garage, and headed for the main part of the house. >> reporter: after a week-long investigation, police announced their findings. >> we believe that the white male suspect described by darley rutier as the man who attacked her and murdered her children never existed. we also believe that the wounds present on darley rutier were self-inflicted. >> reporter: prosecutors charged her with capital murder, alleging she stabbed herself, shen staged the crime scene. >> i remember feeling like, these people are wrongfully trying to accuse me of murdering my children and trying to kill me. i remember just feeling so scared. it couldn't be happening. this just couldn't be happening. >> reporter: but at trial,

prosecutors presented a relentless case, portraying her as a self absorbed, materialistic woman living in debt, suffering postpartum depression. >> they introduced her evidence of her going to strip clubs with her girlfriends on mothers day, the ft that she had a sex toy in the house, that she had fake breast implants, that she wore a lot of jewelry -- >> reporter: then the matter of a controversial but crucial piece of blood spatter evidence introduced by an expert for the prosecution. >> when he testified that that was cast-off blood, that it was consistent with darley rutier actually taking the murder weapon, striking the boys, and then actually small bits of blood actually came off the blade and landed on the shoulder area. >> reporter: another key moment, prosecution experts testified tiny fibers from the screen in the garage were found on a knife found inside their own kitchen. >> that piece of evidence is

devastating to the defense. because it shows that someone inside that house cut open the screen. how in the world else could a fiber from that screen in the garage get on a bread knife in the kitchen? >> reporter: perhaps the most damning piece of evidence of all was her own behavior eight days after the murders, captured by a local tv station. ♪ happy birthday to you >> for some, this may seem a strange thing to do in an odd place and time. ♪ happy birthday dear devin >> singing happy birthday in a cemetery to a son who was brutally stabbed to death just over a week ago. >> i love you, devin and damon! >> davis plays that video for the jury saying, here's a come who lost her children and literally dancing on the graves. >> they only showed a little

clip of that. he didn't see what came before, they didn't see what came after. >> they reached a verdict, we're waiting to get into the courtroom to find out what it is. >> all 12 jurors raised their hand when asked by the judge if she should get the death penalty for murdering her sons. >> reporter: darley rutier found guilty and sentenced to death. >> she's not so much doting on her kids as doting on herself. >> reporter: juror paris recalls the evidence that sealed her fate. >> there's many ways to mourn the loss of a children or parent. but having a birthday party and throwing silly string around in a graveyard? uh-uh. >> i loved being a mother. i loved devin and damon. the idea that i would want to murder my children -- it was just so ridiculous. >> reporter: 20 years after her conviction, her attorneys want the evidence that put her on

death row to be reexamined, including a fingerprint on a living room table imprinted in blood that has never been entered into the federal database. >> could be the print of the person who actually did this. >> any chance in your minds her conviction might be overturned? >> absolutely. first and foremost, the state used blood splatter analysis to convict her. and what we've learned in the 20 years since her trial is that blood spatter analysis is highly subjective. >> reporter: for now, rutier has no execution date scheduled. >> to give you some idea, there's been 162 exonerations of people who death row. 20 of those have been by dna evidence. so she certainly has a shot. but i think more likely the fingerprint running through the database -- that would be more impactful, that would probably get her out quicker. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm linsey davis in new york.

>> the next episode of "the last defense" airs tuesday night at 10/9 central right here on abc. and next, welcome back, conners. conners. still a chance here. it's willingham, edge of the box, willingham shoots... goooooooaaaaaaaallllllll! that...was...magic. willingham tucks it in and puts the championship to bed. sweet dreams, nighty night. as long as soccer players celebrate with a slide, you can count on geico saving folks money. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. pressure, what pressure? the players on the...

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finally tonight, a family reunion, sort of. abc today announcing a spinoff of "roseanne" without its matriarch. the 10-episode series with the working title "the conners" slated to premiere this fall starring the rest of the original cast. reboot of "roseanne" canceled, and roseanne barr fired last month, after the comedienne's racist tweet. abc says barr will have no financial or creative involvement in the new series. the show's producer says barr agreed to the settlement in order to save the jobs of the 200 cast and crew members. welcome back, conners. tune into gma tomorrow for more on the conners' next chapter.

thank you for watching "nightline." as always, our "nightline" facebook page. thanks for the company, america. good night.