Helen is finally with her family after 55 days, but many other kids aren't. Here's how you can help

Helen at her welcome home party

When Helen finally got to go home, her supporters and community threw a party for her, complete with Disney-themed favors, pink balloons and table settings, and a giant banner with her name on it. The 5-year-old, kidnapped from her family by the Trump administration under the barbaric “zero tolerance” policy, had spent 55 days under U.S. custody. While the girl is free, she is not free from her trauma.

“I sense she’s feeling isolated and sad,” her grandma, Noehmi, said in a Families Belong Together video. “They don’t do well after such an experience. Psychologically, they get out affected.” Detention is traumatizing for children, and the longer kids are detained, the longer it takes to overcome this trauma. Minors have been detained for months, some for as long as a year.

This is state-sanctioned child abuse, and now that the administration is seeking to keep kids and their families detained longer, perhaps indefinitely, we need to speak out. You can help by submitting a public comment here calling on officials to stop this rule change and keep children out of detention.

“People shouldn’t forget that there’s families still going through this, that families still don’t have their children,” advocates said in the video, calling on all to continue fighting for justice for these children. “It took 55 days for this child, with an advocacy organization that is very strong, with help from national groups  … all of those children, maybe they don’t have that.”

Children belong free from detention and with their families. Watch Helen’s video below, then make sure to submit a public comment here.

Helen’s story has a happy ending because you fought for her freedom. But now the Trump administration is trying to change the rules so it can jail children and families indefinitely -- which is why we need your help again. Comment to #StopFamilyDetention: https://t.co/60cvtEHI3s pic.twitter.com/ZgIW2QisEw

— Families Belong Together (@fams2gether) October 19, 2018