The youngest child stolen from parents by the Trump administration was just four months, Caitlyn Dickerson reports as part of The New York Times’ “The Weekly” series. Turned over to the Betsy DeVos-connected Bethany Christian Services to be placed into foster care, little Constantin Mutu would remain separated from his parents for five months. “Now more than a year and a half old, the baby still can’t walk on his own, and has not spoken.”
The family had been separated in February 2018, just weeks before the Trump administration publicly announced the barbaric “zero tolerance” policy that stole thousands of children from their families at the southern border. Constantin’s family had fled Romania, “where a small but steady number of asylum seekers fleeing ethnic persecution have for years made their way to the United States.”
But in Mexico, they lost each other when they left their bus in search of medicine for the baby, who had become sick during the journey. Mom Florentina remained in Mexico for a short while as dad Vasile continued on with Constantin to the family’s destination of the U.S. border, where he believed he had a better chance of reuniting. Instead, the worst happened when he encountered Border Patrol.
“I started crying because I didn’t know what to do,” he said when they took the baby. “I couldn’t speak English. I told them, ‘I don’t understand. Why?’” Mutu “still in detention, sank deeper into depression,” The New York Times continued. “He couldn’t sleep and refused most of the food that he was offered … he cried so much that his cell mates started beating him to make him be quiet. He thought about committing suicide.”
Two months later, he was told by immigration officials that if he dropped his asylum claim he would be deported with his child. Plenty of other parents have also said that they were coerced into giving up their asylum claims as well. Desperate, he reluctantly agreed, but the officials had lied to him. When the plane carrying Mutu took off, Constantin was nowhere to be seen.
The boy had been sent to live with a foster family in Michigan through Bethany Christian Services, “which has long faced accusations of discriminating against LGBTQ couples and coercing parents into giving up babies for adoption,” Rewire News reports. “Bethany has a massive reach, with an annual revenue of more than $98 million, millions of which comes from government-funded programs, tax filings show.”
Constantin was eight months old and still with his foster family when he went to his immigration hearing. “During the five-minute proceeding, he babbled on his foster mother’s lap as she sat on the defendant’s bench.” With both of his parents back in Romania, “his pro bono legal representative requested that he be returned to Romania as soon as possible at government expense.”
But the federal government pushed back against this, “stating that as an ‘arriving alien,’ Constantin was not eligible for such help. The judge quickly ruled against her, questioning the idea ‘that the respondent should be responsible for making his own way back to Romania as an 8-month-old.’” The next month, he was set to return to Romania. “He was 9 months old and had spent the majority of his life in the custody of the United States government.”
Now 18 months old and with his rightful family again, Constantin “still can’t walk without holding onto someone’s hand. He babbles and squeals, but as far as words go, she said, ‘He says absolutely nothing.’” The family is now “pursuing a claim for damages against the United States,” The New York Times reports, but so much damage has already been done. Cruel, intentional damage, at the hands of the United States government, that didn’t even spare a four-month-old child.
