On August 25, 2022, Handley Farah & Anderson filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in federal court in Brooklyn on behalf of a Honduran father and daughter that were forcibly separated at the United States’ border by U.S. government agents. The lawsuit alleges that this forceable separation caused severe and unjustified trauma and injury to this family. The Trump Administration deliberately and intentionally separated families at the border despite their knowledge of the irreversible harm this would cause, and without a plan for reuniting such families. The Administration did so with the express goal that the trauma inflicted on the separated families would deter others from seeking asylum.
In May 2018, the Plaintiff father and his then seven-year-old daughter fled Honduras after several of their family members had been murdered. Shortly after they arrived in the United States, father and daughter were taken to a detention facility and separated by border patrol agents. Without her father’s knowledge or consent, his daughter was then put on an airplane and sent to Syosset, New York and detained in a facility for unaccompanied children, while Plaintiff father was deported back to Honduras. His daughter was not reunited with her family for four agonizing months. Both father and daughter suffered and continue to suffer immensely from this traumatizing and painful experience.
If you have questions concerning this case, please contact Rachel Nadas at (202) 899-2991 or [email protected]. A copy of the complaint can be found here.