Friend,
In the summer of 2018, I was an attorney working directly with immigrant children in federal custody who had been separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s so-called “Zero Tolerance” policy.
I remember my regular calls with a tearful father in ICE detention whose 8-year-old daughter was in custody a thousand miles away from him. I remember a meeting over crayons and Jenga with a wide-eyed 11-year-old eager to hug his “papá.” And I remember the reunification in July of a young mother with her 21-month-old son. She had not seen him in six months. When she swept him up into her arms, I couldn’t help but note how little he reacted, and I wondered whether maybe, horribly, he did not quite remember his own mother. Later that day I went home, walked in my door, greeted my husband and two young children, and promptly burst into tears.
More than five years later, the federal government announced a preliminary settlement agreement in the class action lawsuit brought on behalf of immigrant parents who were wrongfully separated from their children at the border. However, the settlement falls short of providing separated families with what they need. And it won’t prevent all future separations.
As an organization that witnessed firsthand the immediate and significant trauma inflicted on these children, the Young Center will continue to demand that no child should endure the horror of being forcefully separated from their parents by the hands of the government as punishment for seeking safety in another country, now or in the near future.
While reunification can bring temporary joy, it is also a stark and painful reminder that it is only the first step for these families in piecing their lives back together and in the fight for a permanent path to justice. Join us as we continue our work.
