A Guatemalan asylum-seeker sued the Trump administration on Tuesday for ‘forcibly’ separating her from her seven-year-old son after they crossed the border in May.
Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia was never indicted for illegally entering the country, but officials won’t tell her where her son Darwin is, according to her lawsuit filed Tuesday in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. against 6 federal agencies and 10 senior officials.
Mejia-Mejia’s lawsuit is believed to be the first to challenge the government’s removal of a specific child from a parent in the course of upholding federal immigration law. It opens up a new legal front in what has become an all-out battle with the White House on one side and a combination of Democratic lawmakers and immigration activists on the other.
