A federal judge in Connecticut ruled that it is unconstitutional to separate minors from their families. Therefore, the two children sent to Connecticut from the U.S.-Mexico border were reunited with their parents on July 16, 2018. That leaves 2,940 children still  forcibly removed from their parents by the U.S. government.

The two children reunited with their parents are a 9 year-old Honduran boy and a 14 year old girl from El Salvador. Both children witnessed murders of family members by gangs in their countries of origin and escaped on foot with one of their parents. At the U.S. border, their parents were surreptitiously taken away from the children without any explanation to the children. The children were then transported to Connecticut.

There are three take-aways and two remaining questions:

1. We, as U.S. citizens, owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Connecticut Legal Services and the Worker and Immigrant Rights Clinic at Yale Law School for taking this case and arguing it effectively. They did so in our name.

2.  We are a country of laws.

3. The judiciary branch of our government still functions.

4. How will our federal government remedy the very real trauma that it caused these two children?

5. How will the federal government reunite the 2, 940 other children with their parents and heal the trauma it has caused those children?