The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday denied the account of a migrant woman who said U.S. immigration officials separated her from her baby while she was breastfeeding after being detained for entering the United States illegally. In a press call with reporters, DHS officials twice stated that they do not believe the account of Natalia Cornelio, a civil rights lawyer who told CNN that U.S. officials "forcibly" separated a Honduran mother from her child, BuzzFeed News reported. ADVERTISEMENT "When she resisted having her daughter taken from her she said agents forcibly took her child and then placed her in handcuffs," Cornelio said, adding that the migrant woman was reportedly "sobbing" as guards detained the child. DHS officials on the call said they believe Cornelio's account is "false," and that no documentation could be found to back up the story. The official, according to BuzzFeed, did not confirm whether an officer would be mandated to provide such details in any documentation. "We do not separate breastfeeding children from their parents," the official added. "That does not exist. That is not a policy. That is not something that DHS does." The Trump administration announced its "zero tolerance" policy early last month, stating that all migrants who are apprehended upon entering the country illegally would be prosecuted. Adults are separated from their children for prosecution, which has led to an influx of family separations resulting in thousands of migrant children being sent to detention facilities. President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE has attempted to lay blame on Democrats for the widely denounced policy, but Senate Democrats have introduced legislation banning separating families at the border. Cornelio did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed about the official's statement.<doc-sep>A Honduran woman says US border officials snatched her infant child while she was breastfeeding her at a detention centre in southern Texas. Natalia Cornelio, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, told CNN the unnamed woman claimed in an interview that authorities had taken her daughter while the family was in custody. The woman had been detained under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy to illegal migrants or asylum seekers caught crossing the border between Mexico and the United States. Since the strategy was introduced in May, anyone found crossing the border unauthorised faces federal charges and are likely to be separated from any children they travelled with. Department of Homeland Security officials revealed in Senate testimony around 650 children were split from their families in detention centres within two weeks of the policy’s launch. “The government is essentially torturing people by doing this,” Ms Cornelio said. The Texas Civil Rights Project says in many cases federal agencies give no information to detained parents regarding their children’s whereabouts. It said on one occasion it was aware of, border patrol agents told a mother they were taking her daughter for a bath, only to never return the child. Carlos Diaz, a US Customs and Border Protection spokesman, disputed claims officials had separated a child from its mother as she breastfed. “Nothing could be further from the truth and these allegations are unsubstantiated,” he said. Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Show all 14 1 /14 Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Immigrant children, many of whom are separated form their parents, are housed in Texas' tent city Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented migrants ride on the top of a freight train referred to as the beast, or La Bestia Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A cage inside a US Customs and Border Protection detention facility in Texas Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy All new agents must complete a months-long training course at the New Mexico facility before assuming their posts at Border Patrol stations, mostly along the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence A group of young men walk along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border fence in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence in the US Man looks through US-Mexico border fence into the US in Tijuana, Mexico Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence US Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol on in La Joya, Texas Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy US Border Patrol instructor yells at trainees after their initial arrival to the academy Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Memorial service in Guatemala Families attend a memorial service for two boys who were kidnapped and killed in San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Crime drives emigration from Guatemala to the United States, as families seek refuge from the danger Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Arrests on the border Undocumented immigrants comfort each other after being caught by Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Detention holding facility A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the US Border Patrol Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican farm workers Mexican migrant workers harvest organic parsley at Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colorado Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican family in Arizona A Mexican immigrant family sits in the living room of their rented home in Tuscon, Arizona. The family that Arizona's new tough immigrant law had created a climate of fear in the immigrant community. Getty Meanwhile, several members of Congress blocked off the entrance to the US Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Washington on Wednesday in protest over the separations. “I cannot think of an act that is more cruel and more inhumane than to rip the child from the arms of the mother,” Democratic congressman from Illinois, Luis Gutierrez, told crowds at the event. “A mother who comes fleeing systematic torture, rape, death, gang violence. The cartels run her neighbourhood, run her nation and her government does not, will not, cannot protect her. “She comes to the United States, not illegally, but following one of the greatest traditions in our country, to seek asylum, from death and from torture. We welcome her and her children to this country.”<doc-sep>A short time later, he wrote on Twitter, “The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda.” But Mr. Trump was misrepresenting his own policy. There is no law that says children must be taken from their parents if they cross the border unlawfully, and previous administrations have made exceptions for those traveling with minor children when prosecuting immigrants for illegal entry. A “zero tolerance” policy created by the president in April and put into effect last month by the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, allows no such exceptions, Mr. Trump’s advisers say. The president’s efforts to deflect blame for the practice reflected the degree to which it has become politically unpopular, with Democrats, civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups and religious leaders condemning it as inhumane. Republicans have also begun to express unease about the practice. Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said on Thursday that he was not comfortable with it, and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio tweeted on Friday: “Quit separating families. It’s that simple.” The number released on Friday suggests that thousands of children have been taken from their parents at the border since late last year. The New York Times reported in April that about 700 children had been separated from their parents as they were processed at stations on the southwest border, including more than 100 under the age of 4. As the number of children in its custody grows beyond the capacity of existing detention centers, the Trump administration reportedly plans to erect a tent city in Tornillo, Tex., to house them. The homeland security official said that the administration had drawn a “bright line” against taking babies from their parents because the government was unable to appropriately care for children that young, but could not immediately provide information about the age cutoff below which they would decline to take a child.<doc-sep>At least 2,000 children have been ripped directly from their parents’ arms on the US-Mexico border since late April, as the Trump administration has implemented a “zero-tolerance” policy on people crossing into the US illegally, even if they are seeking asylum. But one of the most horrifying tales of family separation came last week in a CNN report of an undocumented migrant from Honduras whose daughter was taken away by federal immigration agents while she was breastfeeding in a detention center. When the mother tried to resist arrest, she was handcuffed, according to her lawyer Natalia Cornelio. A series of tweets from science journalist Emily Dreyfuss poignantly captured the unique brutality of ripping a child from its mother’s breast: As a mother who breastfed an infant, I want to explain how excruciating it would be physically to have your child ripped from your breast. https://t.co/gqCk38hOOb — Emily Dreyfuss (@EmilyDreyfuss) June 14, 2018 Dreyfuss explains that the anguish a mother would feel having her child taken away from her breast isn’t just emotional; it’s physical too. And there’s some very good science that can help explain this. The powerful “oxytocin reflex” There are two hormones that are directly involved in breastfeeding, and one of them is oxytocin, the feel-good hormone. “[A] baby crying induces oxytocin release, which causes breast milk production and release,” explained George Saade, director of the maternal-fetal medicine division at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Breasts full of milk can be painful. Latching can also be painful, especially in the early days and months after the baby’s birth. But when a baby suckles a mom’s breasts, the mother’s brain’s posterior lobe secretes oxytocin, and some of that pain is relieved with the release of milk. This is referred to as the “oxytocin reflex” or the “milk ejection reflex” — and it’s commonly accompanied by a tingling sensation in the breasts and milk flowing out, just before or during a feeding. “The reflex becomes conditioned to the mother’s sensations and feelings, such as touching, smelling or seeing her baby, or hearing her baby cry, or thinking lovingly about him or her,” according to a World Health Organization report on mother-child feeding. Separating moms and infants is risky to their health In the breastfeeding stage, the baby’s suckling reflexes are also highly attuned, as Dreyfuss noted. “When your baby is latched to you, they are latched hard. That’s their job, to clamp down as hard as they can and suck as hard as they can to survive,” she wrote. Indeed, when something touches a baby’s palate, he or she starts to suck it, and oxytocin comes in here too, the WHO said: “The oxytocin reflex makes the breast milk flow along the ducts, and the action of the baby’s tongue presses the milk from the ducts into the baby’s mouth.” That’s why when a baby is attached to the mother’s breast, it’s essential to break the suction — typically with a pinky finger — before trying to remove the baby, explained Alison Stuebe, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “Simply pulling the baby off will traumatize the mother’s nipple,” she added. There are other risks associated with splitting a mom from her baby at this vulnerable time. “A woman’s breasts are continuously making milk,” Stuebe said, “ and if that milk is not removed, her breasts become swollen and painful. She can develop mastitis, and mastitis can evolve into a breast abscess that may require surgical drainage.” Since October, more than 700 children have been separated from their families This highly refined and intricate system of hormones during breastfeeding is essential to keeping moms and babies healthy, and “it explains why the mother and baby should be kept together and why they should have skin-to-skin contact,” the WHO explained. It also helps explain why the story of the Honduran migrant is so inhumane. According to the New York Times, more than 700 children have been taken from adults who claim to be their parents since last October. More than 100 of them were under the age of 4. As Vox’s Dara Lind explained, this has prompted “Families Belong Together” rallies across the US. “Which is more humane? To take a child from her parent, keep her in a temporary “tent” for a few days or weeks, and then place her with a relative? Or to keep child and parent together, in detention, for months or years?” Lind wrote. “Most of the administration’s critics would probably answer that the only humane option is to release the whole family together and find another way to monitor their cases to make sure they show up for their court dates. But that is the one option the administration refuses to put back on the table.”<doc-sep>
The Trump administration separated 1,995 children from 1,940 adults from April 19 to May 31, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. That's approximately 46 children per day, over a six-week period. The administration's "zero tolerance" policy, which was announced by the Department of Justice in April, separates children from their parents or legal guardians because the adults have been referred to DHS for prosecution for illegal entry into the United States. In a briefing with reporters on Friday, DHS officials complained of exaggerated and inaccurate reports about the policy, taking particular issue with a CNN report that a mother had her infant child taken from her arms while she was breastfeeding. "We do not separate breastfeeding children from their parents. That does not exist, that's not a policy, that’s not something that DHS does," a DHS official said. DHS officials also said they had "no choice" but to separate parents and children at the border. Pressed on this claim, they said the only alternative option was to ignore the law, though previous administrations have used other methods to keep migrant families together while they wound their way through immigration court proceedings. The officials could not say whether parents were allowed to say goodbye to their parents before they are separated. Some reports have said parents are told their children are being taken to a separate facility for a bath. Separating parents from children was rare under the Obama administration and in the early part of the Trump administration, usually reserved only for cases where the safety of a child was in question. Nearly 1,800 immigrant families were separated over 17 months prior to February, according to a Reuters report. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has forcefully defended the policy, which has been criticized by Democrats, Republicans, Christian groups and medical doctors, who said Friday that the children separated from their parents could suffer permanent damage. On Thursday, Sessions told a group of law enforcement officers that the migrant families were to blame for their own break-ups and that his department's actions were not "unusual or unjustified." "If you cross the southwest border unlawfully, then the Department of Homeland Security will arrest you and the Department of Justice will prosecute you. That is what the law calls for — and that is what we are going to do," Sessions said. President Donald Trump lamented his administration's policy Friday and blamed Democrats in Congress — a falsehood he and other members of his administration have advanced before. "I hate children being taken away," he told reporters on the White House lawn. "That's the Democrats."