Migrant parents say separations from children make ‘us feel like we are dead’

Fifty-four migrant parents separated from their children at the border signed an open letter pleading with Americans to “please help us,” according to CNN.

The parents, in the letter disseminated Sunday, detail the trauma of being separated from their children.

“Many of us have only had the chance to speak to our children once,” the letter says in Spanish. “The children cry, they don’t recognize our voices and they feel abandoned and unloved.”

“We are desperate,” the parents said. “This makes us feel like we are dead.”

{mosads}

The adult detainees penned the letter from Port Isabel Service Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas, CNN reported.

Stories of migrant families have come to light in recent weeks, after news emerged that President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy was resulting in the separation of thousands of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Though Trump signed an executive order ending the family separations, federal agencies are still scrambling to reunite families. According to a Friday court filing, there are more than 2,500 children ages 5 and older waiting to be reunited with their parents, CNN reported.

The Justice Department is reportedly working to clarify the reunification plan. The government said it will reunify children with their parents only after confirming they are the parents and that they’re able to take care of their children.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has reunified 57 children under the age of five with their parents this month, but there are 46 more in government custody who have not been reunited yet due to ineligibility.

“With all this trauma; the nightmares, anxiety and pain that this government has caused us and our children, we still have to fight for our asylum cases,” the parents wrote in the letter.