"We were patrolling the border. It was after 10 o'clock at night," Border Patrol agent Carlos Ruiz told CBS News' David Begnaud. He was the first to encounter Sandra Sanchez and her daughter after they allegedly crossed the Rio Grande River into Texas illegally.
"We asked her to set the kid down in front of her, not away from her, she was right in front of her...So we can properly search the mother," Ruiz said. "So the kid immediately started crying as she set her down. I personally went up to the mother and asked her 'Are you doing OK? Is the kid OK?' and she said, 'Yes. She's tired and thirsty. It's 11 o'clock at night.'"
"When I took this picture, I knew it would be important. I had no way of knowing that it would touch people quite on the level that it has," Moore said. "I asked her how long she'd been traveling, and she gave me this very weary look, and she said she'd been on the road with her daughter for a month…. Imagine doing that with children. It's almost impossible to imagine, actually."
Moore's image is now on the cover of Time magazine next to a picture of President Trump.
"They're using it to symbolize a policy and that was not the case in this picture," Ruiz said. "It took less than two minutes. As soon as the search was finished, she immediately picked the girl up, and the girl immediately stopped crying."
Moore says Ruiz and other agents acted professionally that night. But he is happy with the cover and the response to the image.
"Oftentimes, immigration is talked about in terms of statistics, and when you put a human face and humanize an issue, you make people feel. And when you make people feel, they have compassion. And if I've done just a little bit of that, then that's OK," Moore said.
Ruiz said he and his fellow agents represent more than just the Border Patrol logo.
"We are also fathers, we are also sons, we are also have families, and we do care, and we do our jobs, and we treat these people as humanely and as best as we possibly can," Ruiz said.