(Photo Credit: Associated Press)

More kids are being separated from their parents in U.S. migrant detention centers

The U.S. border patrol held an unprecedented number of migrant children in custody in 2019, according to numbers released in November. 69,550 children were kept in custody without their parents this year, and about 4,000 remain in custody, with more arriving every week.

That’s enough children to fill an NFL stadium, according to reports in the Associated Press and the Daily Beast.

“The data shows more kids have been detained away from their parents in the U.S. than any other country, even though the U.S. government has acknowledged that being held in detention can cause long-term harm to children. The U.S. is being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars by some families who say their children were harmed in detention,” The Daily Beast reports.

The Trump administration enacted the controversial “family separation policy,” in which children detained at the border were held separately from their parents, in the summer of 2018. Many children remain in detention facilities after their parents are deported back to their home countries, while others have been sent to live with relatives or foster families in the United States.

“Some of these migrant children who were in government custody this year have already been deported. Some have reunited with family in the U.S., where they’re trying to go to school and piece back together their lives. About 4,000 are still in government custody, some in large, impersonal shelters. And more arrive every week,” the Associated Press reports.