An immigrant child from El Salvador — who was separated from his mother at the U.S. border while seeking asylum — is now, reportedly, being held at a children's home in Kingston.

His mother was transferred from a detention center near the border to a federal prison in Seattle, where she is currently waiting to find out if she and her son will be granted asylum. 

"This is a horrific moment in American history," Ulster County Executive Mike Hein said in an interview at his Kingston office on Thursday.

Hein said he's furious the U.S. government had been separating undocumented immigrants from their children for several weeks until President Donald Trump signed an executive order, ending the practice.

Upon first learning about the child being held at the Kingston facility, Hein immediately dispatched the county's commissioner of social services to the facility to offer translation services and counseling.

At Hein's office, his secretary told him the staff has been "inundated" with calls from people wanting to help, including certified foster parents.

Hein said he is also angry President Trump's administration has not offered any clear plan to reunite the 2,000-plus families that have been separated under the recently-ended policy. 

"I want to have clear assurances that reunification is on schedule for as soon as possible, because every minute that child is away from their parent, they are further scarred," Hein said. "Why would we do that as a country?"

At Kingston's Iglesia Amigos, Pastor Jose Urrutia said his 200-member congregation wants to invite the child to their services and activities.

To Urrutia, who immigrated here from El Salvador toward the end of the country's civil war in 1990, the reason many families have been illegally crossing the border is simple.

"If your family's in danger, you have to leave, right?" Pastor Jose said. "This is a reality."

He said extortion is common practice in the country since many pockets of the country are governed by gangs, and those gang members have proven to deliver on their threats.

According to reporting by the Associated Press, the mother of the child being held in Kingston said her family was ordered by a gang member to pay $5,000, or else her son would be killed.

"They tell you all the tales of your family," Pastor Jose said. "...Names, addresses and all the places where you work and where you go."

Hein said he is disappointed Rep. John Faso — and many others — have not used their positions to push for more humane policy.

A spokesperson from Faso's Washington, D.C. office said Thursday that Faso has said many times he is opposed to separating families, and that he wants to fix immigration laws.

Faso voted against a conservative immigration bill late Thursday.