Hi ACLU Supporter –

Today we're in court again to block the Trump administration from continuing to separate families at the border – which they are doing in defiance of the nationwide injunction issued last year. At least 950 parents and children – including babies – have been separated since then.

The administration is manufacturing flimsy reasons to justify separating families, under the guise of child welfare. But most of the allegations would never qualify as a basis for family separation in any state child welfare system.

Do these sound like instances of child welfare to you?

• CBP blamed a father for neglect when his two-year-old daughter developed a fever. Then they separated the family and deported the father.
• While a mother was hospitalized for a broken leg, her daughter was taken from her, flown across the country, and not reunited even after the mother left the hospital.
• A four-year-old boy was separated because his father's speech impediment prevented the father from answering CBP's questions.
• A mother was separated from her family due to alleged gang affiliation, because she had eaten at a restaurant frequented by gang members.

Separating a child from their parent is deeply traumatizing. It can carry significant physical and emotional consequences well beyond the period of separation. Some children are separated at such a young age that they can't even remember their parents when they are reunited.

This practice of gratuitous cruelty has no place in our country. That's why we'll keep fighting it – in the courts, in the streets, and in Congress – until each and every family is reunited. And with supporters like you behind us, we know we will win.

Thanks for your support in this fight,

Lee Gelernt
Deputy Director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project