HOUSTON (AP) ‐ Lawyers for eight immigrant families separated under Trump administration policy filed claims Monday against the U.S. government demanding $6 million each in damages for what they describe as lasting trauma.The parents accused immigration officers of taking their children away without giving them information and sometimes mocking them or denying them a chance to say goodbye. The claims allege that many children remain traumatized, including a 7-year-old girl who won't sleep without her mother and a 6-year-old boy who is reluctant to eat.
The Trump administration has acknowledged it separated more than 2,000 families last year through the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy intended to crack down on Central American migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Government watchdogs have also said it's unclear how many families were separated in total because agencies did not keep good enough records as the policy was implemented.
In one claim , a Guatemalan woman alleges she was detained in May with her 5-year-old son in a type of temporary detention facility nicknamed a "hielera," or icebox in Spanish. When they arrived in Arizona, the claim alleges, an immigration officer told her the law had changed, that their children would be taken, and that they would be deported. She says the officer then told her: "Happy Mother's Day."