Evan Rachel Wood goes to Texas border to fight for separated families

Acclaimed actress Evan Rachel Wood said she saw the images and heard cries of children being "ripped apart" from their families at the southern border.

"I felt like I had been kicked in the gut when I found out what was happening," she said in an emotional interview with ABC News on Sunday. "I don't believe in families ripped apart; I just don't.

"I don't think it's right and without a plan to reunite them -- that's completely unimaginable, and unthinkable and it's wrong."

So Wood said she traveled to Texas to "put faces to the story" and "be able to hug the kids."

The 'Westworld' star was overcome with a mix of melancholy and joy reflecting on the hours spent with some children at shelters for families waiting to be processed.

The actress said that the medicine, clean clothes and other supplies were appreciated, but what seemed to resonate the most was showing they were valued.

"I want to let them know they weren't alone," Wood said of the young children at the shelters. "To be able to hug the kids -- that moved me more than anything."

She joked that the children who welcomed her in their playpen "were so much smarter than me."

"You know, we were building things and creating things and the hope that was in their eyes was inspiring."

Wood tried to put herself in the place of the mothers, and feel what it would be like to lose track of her 5-year-old son.

"I couldn't even imagine not know where he was or not knowing if I was ever going to see him again," she said, holding back tears.

Thousands of children have been separated from family members as they await trial and their cases are adjudicated.

It's the result of President Donald Trump's “zero tolerance” policy toward people crossing the border illegally.

The policy, set forth by the Trump administration and implemented by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, buckled under sharp criticism by lawmakers, advocates and the religious community -- including some in the president's base. On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order that aimed to keep immigrant families attempting to cross the border intact.

"I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated," Trump said afterward.

But Wood said the president's order doesn't solve the problem for the hundreds of children who have already parted from their loved ones.

"I didn't want people to think that because of a slight policy [change] that everything was fixed," she said. "We still have to reunite families.

"Don't lose momentum because the fight is not over. Let's not lose hope."