A distraught immigrant boy nearly jumped out a window after being separated from his family, lawsuit says
Seventeen states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its now-halted practice of separating migrant families that illegally cross the US-Mexico border.
The lawsuit seeks to force the government to reunite the thousands of families it separated.
The filing is teeming with heart-wrenching stories about traumatized children, including one of a South American boy who allegedly wanted to jump out a window because he missed his family.
A distraught South American boy who was separated from his family under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" border policy was rushed to hospital after he said he wanted to jump out a window because he missed his parents, a new lawsuit alleges.
Seventeen states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its now-halted practice of separating immigrant families that crossed the US-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, aims to force the government to reunite the thousands of families it split apart — and permanently cease family separations.
"Defendants have made clear that the purpose of separating families is not to protect children, but rather to create a public spectacle designed to deter potential immigrants from coming to the United States," the complaint said, adding that Trump's policy "is causing sever, intentional, and permanent trauma to the children and parents who are separated in furtherance of an illegitimate deterrence objective."
Associated Press/David J. PhillipsThough the government has said it reunited more than 500 children with their families already, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress on Tuesday that 2,047 children were still being held in the agency's custody.
The lawsuit was teeming with heart-wrenching stories of traumatized children desperate to reunite with their parents. The South American boy who said he wanted to jump out the window had been forcibly separated from his father at the US-Mexico border in early June, and was living in a group home in New York City, the filing said.
The boy was just one of thirteen young children who were treated at hospitals for physical and mental illnesses, the suit alleges. Some of them were treated for depression and anxiety — and one child was even suicidal.
The lawsuit accused the Trump administration's policy of undermining New York state's interest in the health, safety, and well-being of all children who live there "by causing severe trauma to these children."
The lawsuit pointed out that even New York children who live in foster care were afforded more rights than their immigrant counterparts, and provided regular visitation rights even when one or both parents are incarcerated.
"Due to [the Trump administration's] illegal policy, the separated children who are currently residing in New York are being treated differently than other children in foster care in the State, to their great detriment," the lawsuit alleged.
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