ACLU sues as U.S. holds girl, mom in different immigration facilities

HOUSTON — The American Civil Liberties Union accused the U.S. government on Monday of unlawfully separating a Congolese woman and her 7-year-old daughter by holding them in different immigration facilities, two time zones apart, after they sought asylum four months ago.

The ACLU said the family’s case is one example of the practice of President Donald Trump’s administration to target immigrant families seeking asylum through processes established under U.S. law.

Trump has not announced a formal policy to hold adult asylum seekers separately from their children, but top administration officials have said they believe the asylum process is overwhelmed and challenged by people making frivolous claims.

The woman is held at a detention center in San Diego, while her daughter is held in a facility for unaccompanied minor children in Chicago, about 2,000 miles away.

The mother and daughter entered the U.S. together in California in November and turned themselves in to U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. Initially, the two were kept together. But about five days after they entered the U.S., the child was taken away “screaming and crying, pleading with guards not to take her away from her mother,” according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Diego.

The woman and her daughter have spoken around six times by phone since.

The ACLU is asking that the woman and her daughter be released to a shelter that serves asylum seekers from African countries or be placed in a family detention center run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.