Immigrant mother claims 14-month-old baby was returned to her covered in lice after separation at border

An immigrant mother who was separated from her 14-month-old baby at the U.S.-Mexico border says that her child was returned to her in deplorable condition.

A lawsuit filed against the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy included a harrowing testimony from migrant mom Olivia Caceras, PBS News Hour reported.

According to Caceras, she and her young son were separated by ICE for 85-days before the child was ultimately returned to his family.

However, when Caceras brought the child home, she noticed something about him had "changed," which caused her to worry about his condition.

"He continued to cry when we got home and would hold on to my leg and would not let me go," Caceras wrote in her testimony. "When I took off his clothes, he was full of dirt and lice. It seems liked they had not bathed him the 85 days he was away from us."

The 1,000-page lawsuit against the policy is backed by 17 states and the District of Columbia, and includes multiple heartwrenching personal testimonies like Caceras'.

Although President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 20 to end family separations at the border, about 3,000 children still remain in federal custody, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

The Trump administration is currently performing DNA tests on detained immigrant parents and children in a rush effort to reunite families that remain separated.

A federal judge ordered the government to reunite children younger than five with their families no later than July 10 and children ages five to 17 by July 26. Azar warned that some procedures the agency usually follows in cases like these might have to be foregone in order to meet these "extreme" deadlines.