What the legal process looks like for an immigrant child taken away from his parents

There’s been an avalanche of grim news centered on young immigrants apprehended at the border with Mexico. On Wednesday, the ACLU published a report documenting abusive encounters between young people and border agents during the administration of President Barack Obama. Last month, the government admitted that it had lost track of more than a thousand children who had been placed with sponsors after being caught crossing the border alone.

In recent days, though, attention has been focused on a new crisis for immigrant children. Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new policy in which families arriving at the border would be forcibly broken up, with children and parents separated from one another and detained separately. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes explored the practical ramifications of the policy: Kids as young as a year-and-a-half, too young to form complete sentences, much less care for themselves, torn away from their parents and sent to government detention facilities.

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