Mother says baby she was breastfeeding taken away by federal agents at Texas detention center
An undocumented immigrant mother from Honduras on Wednesday said that federal agents reportedly separated her from her baby while she was breastfeeding the infant at a detention center in Texas.
The woman, who has not been identified, recounted her ordeal to CNN and said that she was in an immigrant detention center and was awaiting prosecution for entering the country illegally when federal authorities took her daughter away from her while she was trying to feed the child.
Texas Civil Rights Project's Attorney Natalia Cornelio said that during an interview with the woman, she told Cornelio that she was later handcuffed for resisting the separation from her baby.
Separation of families at the United States-Mexico border has come under severe scrutiny by activists, lawmakers and human rights organization across the world.
The separation is a part of President Donald Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy associated with crackdown on immigration in the country.
The family separation policy was announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May, under the policy, Trump administration is taking children away from parents who illegally entered the country and then handing these children to the Department of Health and Human Services for reallocation.
A federal judge in San Diego refused the Trump administration's request last week to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The non-profit organization filed the suit in an attempt to stop the controversial policy.
US District Judge, Dana M. Sabraw ruled that, if the accusations are true, the administration's attempt to separate families "is brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency," according to reports.
A recent report by Reuters stated that almost 1,800 immigrant families have been torn apart at the US-Mexico border from October 2016 to February 2018.
Department of Health and Human Services official Steven Wagner, in April, addressed the Congress and admitted that the government had lost track of nearly 1,500 unaccompanied migrant children who had been placed with sponsors.
The Administration for Children and Families, which is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), however, said that it was not responsible for finding the children it has lost. The particular US government program is meant to place unaccompanied refugee children taken from the US-Mexico border into a parent or sponsor's care in the country.
Reports state that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) was assigned with checking on the welfare of over 7,000 children between October and December 2017, who were supposedly placed into homes of a guardian or a sponsor.
According to Wagner's testimony, along with nearly 1,500 children missing, an additional 28 children ran away and at least 52 of them were living with someone other than their initial sponsor.
Wagner added that the "ORR is not legally responsible for children after they are released from ORR care" and handed over to a sponsor.
Reports state that more than 40,000 children, in 2017 alone, were taken by the Department of Homeland Security from the US-Mexico border and handed over to the ORR.
