Dozens of families of migrant children harmed while separated from their parents and in government custody are filing legal claims against the government, with a possible bill for damages running into the hundreds of millions of dollars—not that that would be enough to undo the suffering inflicted on these families by the Trump administration. With the help of advocacy groups and law firms working pro bono, families are filing Federal Tort Claims Act claims. If the government doesn’t settle those claims within six months, the families can then sue in federal court.
An investigation by the Associated Press and Frontline reports that several of the children were sexually or otherwise abused while in federal foster care facilities, such as a 7-year-old Guatemalan boy with a heart condition who was sexually abused by other boys in a foster home. “How is it possible that my son was suffering these things?” the boy’s father, who left Guatemala with the child after their home was burned down by local officials in retaliation for the father’s environmental activism, said. “My son is little and couldn’t defend himself.”
In a few cases, family members are making claims because of deaths in custody, such as the Honduran man who died by suicide after his 3-year-old son was taken from him, or a Guatemalan toddler who died after officials at a family detention center didn’t get her adequate medical care.
It could get expensive for the U.S. government—and it should. The level of abuse inflicted on these children and families is an outrage, and while no amount of money can take away the effects of trauma on a tiny child, or bring back a loved one who died in custody, it’s the least we owe the people harmed by our government in our names.
