A distraught South American boy who was separated from his family under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” border policy was rushed to the hospital after he said he wanted to jump out a window because he missed his parents, a new lawsuit has alleged.

Seventeen states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its now-halted practice of separating immigrant families that cross the US-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, aims to force the government to reunite the thousands of families it split apart – and permanently cease family separations.

“Defendants have made clear that the purpose of separating families is not to protect children, but rather to create a public spectacle designed to deter potential immigrants from coming to the United States,” the complaint said, adding that the policy was “causing severe, intentional, and permanent trauma to the children and parents who are separated in furtherance of an illegitimate deterrence objective.”

Though the government says it has reunited more than 500 children with their families already, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress that 2,047 children were still being held in the agency’s custody.

The lawsuit was teeming with heart-wrenching stories of traumatized children desperate to reunite with their parents.

The South American boy had been forcibly separated from his father at the US-Mexico border early this month and was living in a group home in New York City, the filing said.

The suit alleges the boy was just one of 13 young children who were treated at hospitals for physical and mental illnesses. Some of them were said to be treated for depression and anxiety.

The lawsuit accused the Trump administration’s policy of undermining New York state’s interest in the health, safety, and well-being of all children who live there “by causing severe trauma to these 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

The lawsuit pointed out that New York children who live in foster care were afforded more rights than their immigrant counterparts, allowed regular visitation rights even with one or both parents incarcerated.

The lawsuit said that because of what it called the Trump administration’s “illegal policy,” separated children in New York were being treated differently from other children in foster care in the state, “to their great detriment.”

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