Migrants call for $6 million for each one from Trump administration for separation with families

Migrant families who were separated from their children by the Trump administration are suing the US government for damages.

Eight of the immigrant families forcibly separated by the Trump administration has filed suit against the US government.

The Trump administration operated under a policy that placed the adult illegal immigrants under arrest and separated them from their young children, putting them in a separate holding facility.

“The government was harming children intentionally to try to advance what it viewed as a policy objective. It’s heinous and immoral, but it’s also a civil wrong for which the law provides a claim for relief.”

MILLIONS DEMANDED IN IMMIGRANT CLAIM

The suit lodged by the lawyers of the 8 families filed claims of emotional damage and lasting trauma to the children, and demand $6 million each in damages

The families propose to prove that the immigration officials who separated them from their children refused not inform them of the children's destination, sometimes mocked them, and denied them the opportunity to comfort and say goodbye to the frightened minors.

The US Government has admitted to separating 2,000 families in 2018, as a part of its zero-tolerance policy towards illegal migrants.

THE CHILDREN'S LASTING TRAUMA

Among the children damaged by the brutal policy is a 7-year-old girl who won’t sleep without her mother, and a 6-year-old boy who has to be coaxed to eat every bite he consumes.

IMMIGRATION OFFICER MOCKED: "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY"

In one particularly cruel incident, a Guatemalan woman recounted that her 5-year-old son taken away from her by an immigration officer.

The man who told her the law had changed and that her child would be taken from her, and that she would be deported without him. The officer then exclaimed mockingly: “Happy Mother’s Day.”

THE NUMBER OF SEPARATED FAMILIES IS UNKNOWN

One of the families' lawyers, Stanton Jones, declared that the US Government implemented a policy to further its objectives, knowing that children would be harmed by its actions.

The US Government has admitted to separating 2,000 families in 2018, as a part of its zero-tolerance policy towards illegal migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The true number of affected families may be much higher, since the officials did not keep accurate records, and many of the children have subsequently been released. The Government has no records of the whereabouts of these children.

THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN WITH "WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN"

The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services has lodged a report that states that an unknown number of children were separated from their families at the US-Mexico border before June 2018, but were not factored into the official accounts.

According to the DHHS, the federal court order that forced the Trump administration to reunite the separated parents and children in its custody was not applied to the children who had already been released into a sponsor's care.

The HHS reports that there could be thousands of children in these circumstances, and that the Government kept no records of their whereabouts, or into whose care they were released.

In a related story, after a month of anguish, a Honduran mother was finally reunited with her daughter at the San Francisco Airport.