A child was returned to his parents “full of dirt and lice” 85 days after being taken by US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) at the border, according to his mother.

Olivia Caceras made the claim about her 14-month-old son in a lawsuit filed by 17 states and Washington DC against Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” family separation policy at the US border that has resulted in more than 2,300 children being separated from parents or guardians upon entry.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions had even made seeking asylum a crime and those who had crossed the border illegally for the first time were detained separately from their children and sent to facilities throughout Texas and beyond.

Ms Caceras’ testimony is one of many included in the court filing, totalling nearly 1,000 pages.

She said about her son’s return: “He continued to cry when we got home and would hold on to my leg and would not left me go”.

“When I took off his clothes, he was full of dirt and lice...It seems like they had not bathed him the 85 days he was away from us,” she noted.

Theresa May condemns Trump's family separation policy and says she will challenge him on UK visit

Neither the White House nor the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, tasked with the management of the children’s detention facilities, have responded to a request for comment on the allegations.

Before Mr Trump signed an executive order ending the family separation policy on 20 June, there appeared to be no real plan for reunification - parents and guardians were not given matching case numbers to their children, information on the location of children let alone phone calls with them were scant according to reports from advocates who had spoken to detainees, and some children were even sent as far away as Michigan and New York.

Thousands are still waiting to find their children.

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

However, the latest court order issued by US District Court Judge in the southern district of California is forcing the federal government to reunite children within 30 days, and 14 days for the children under the age of five.

The latter deadline comes up on 10 July.

The lawsuit containing Ms Caceres’ claims and hundreds of others was filed on 26 June by 18 Democratic attorneys general and, according to PBS, seeks a “court to order that this policy is unconstitutional and it must stop permanently. They also want courts to order those seeking asylum be allowed to process and go through the border without being detained”.

The first-hand accounts detailed in the court filing include those undocumented migrants were kept in freezing cold cells, being forced to share one toilet with little privacy among more than 50 adults, racial slurs by guards, and psychological abuse of the separated children.