Exactly 528 migrant children continue to remain under U.S. custody, despite a federal judge’s court order. For some children who have been returned to their parents, like 3-year-old Sammy, reunions have been anything but joyous. When he saw his mom for the first time in three months, it was like he was seeing a stranger.
“I’m your mommy, sweetheart, I’m your mommy,” she cried as the boy tried to squirm out of her arms. He got away. She turned, weeping to her husband: “Ever, what’s wrong with my son?” Her husband Ever, holding their 5-month-old daughter, said nothing as the boy crawled to a wall, turned around, and looked at his mom with no expression. When she again attempted to hold him, the boy again rushed away. “What happened … my son is traumatized, Ever,” she cried.
What happened was that the Trump administration kidnapped nearly 3,000 children from the arms of migrant parents at the U.S./Mexico border, with no plan on how or when to ever reunite them again and no care for their emotional well-being. Officials have released more than 2,000 kids, but only because they were forced to by the court. Still, despite Judge Dana Sabraw’s July 26 reunification deadline, hundreds remain in U.S. custody, and at ongoing risk of life-long trauma.
“There is no greater threat to a child’s emotional well-being,” University of Houston psychology professor Johanna Bick said according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “than being separated from a primary caregiver. Even if it was for a short period, for a child, that’s an eternity.”
Children and their families are already fleeing danger in their home countries, yet the Trump administration is intentionally traumatizing them here. Jonathan White, former deputy director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and a licensed clinical social worker, claimed he warned the administration that tearing families apart would do this. The administration tore them apart and threw the children into harmful conditions anyway.
Earlier this month, a 32-year-old Southwest Key employee was arrested and charged with molesting a 14-year-old detained girl, “accused of slipping into the girl's room late at night and forcibly kissing and inappropriately touching her, according to court documents.” Other children have alleged abusive conditions, while others, distraught over finding out their parents had been deported, being forcibly drugged.
It doesn’t take a professional to know that these conditions, aside from being forcibly ripped from the arms of their their parents, will take an emotional toll on children. Yet, the administration continues to jail more than 500 kids in blatant violation of a court order. This is criminal, and it’s on the hands of Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kristjen Nielsen, Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Alex Azar, and Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, to start with.
“I felt like I could no longer take anymore,” Sammy’s mom said about the months she spent without her child. According to the ACLU, “after several attempts, Sammy allowed his mom to pick him up, and the family made their way through the airport.” But it’s clear the road to this child healing will be a long one. “My soul was destroyed,” she continued. “I didn’t know where he had gone or know if my son was alone in a cage without his father.”
