Unsanitary drinking water, food “not fit for consumption,” and children “routinely” drugged with psychotropics—“by force if necessary”—are among the claims listed in a number of lawsuits against the Trump administration over the barbaric policy of tearing migrant families apart at the border.
In one lawsuit filed by the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law on behalf of some 200 migrants, victims described being detained in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities and conditions that were filthy. "On the second or third day there, my daughter soiled herself,” Fatima said. “I asked if I could clean her because her underwear [was] soiled. The guards said, 'No.' ... She remained in her dirty underwear until we arrived at Dilley [Texas] several days later."
In a second lawsuit in Connecticut, “a judge has ruled in a suit on behalf of two children separated from their parents at the southern border, that the government is responsible for addressing post traumatic stress disorder brought on by the ordeal,” The Guardian reported. Judge Dana Sabraw has ordered thousands of kids be reunited with parents by next week, but the fact is that every day detained is another day of trauma for separated children.
According to the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, “research clearly shows that traumatic life experiences in childhood, especially those that involve loss of a caregiver or parent, cause lifelong risk for cardiovascular and mental health disease.” It goes beyond migrant kids, too. According to the Center for American Progress, “young children in the immigrant community can experience psychological distress after just seeing or hearing about their peers being separated from their families and friends.”
A third lawsuit addresses the forced medication of children, who are under Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody.
“Sometimes they give me forced injections,” one child said. “One or two staff hold my arms, and the nurse gives me an injection.” Diego, a 10-year-old recently reunited with his family, told The Washington Post that he witnessed another boy “repeatedly injected with something that made him fall asleep.” He had been distraught over the deportation of his dad. Diego said that he “was very scared. I thought they were going to inject me, too.”
With the Republican-led Congress refusing to do anything to protect these children, it’s the courts that have come to their aid, a trend that must continue for the sake of these traumatized children and families. “All the suits directly or indirectly point at the 1997 Flores settlement which dictates the length of time and conditions under which children may be held in immigration detention,” The Guardian continued, “and which the administration has unsuccessfully tried to skirt.”