It's dinner time at the Elias' home. On the menu tonight, and for the next few nights, chicken noodle soup. As head of the household, Marta Elias doesn't have a lot of time to cook. She works full-time as a maid and lately has been picking up extra shifts, all to take care of her niece and nephew.

The children are among the thousands of people that come to the United States every year seeking asylum. During the long and complicated process, sometimes families end up being split up. That's what happened to this family.

Elias says she feels sad because the kids need their mom.

The kids haven't seen her in over a year, ever since she was detained by ICE in Texas at the end of their 2,000 mile journey from Guatemala. Days later, the kids were sent to downtown Los Angeles to live with their aunt.

The last 12 months have taken a toll on her. Already in her late 40s, she has had to use her savings to hire a babysitter, buy diapers, and worry about daycare, schools, books and classes.

She feels overwhelmed.

But all that pales in comparison to the emotional trauma the kids are living through. Medelin, an astute 12 year old, tells me she doesn't want to be apart from her mother any longer.

And although she has her aunt's support, she says she feels buried by her big sister duties.

But she assures me she won't go back to Guatemala where her relatives have threatened to kill her.

Elias says she is worried about the children's mental health, and she's not wrong. "Toxic stress" among children like Medelin is becoming increasingly common, and the effects on the brain can be long-lasting.

Medelin's little brother, Edilson is only two. He was still breastfeeding when he was separated from his mom. By day his laugh fills the room, but at night, the terrors seize him.

He cries in his sleep and after more than a year apart, he is starting to forget his mother, to the point that he has started to call his aunt Marta mom.

What he is too young to realize is that a few weeks after we visited, his real mother was deported.

Now the kids await their own day in immigration court.