Detroit resident Debbie Williams will always remember that day 26 years ago. It shadows her every movement and it burns her with the unfathomable anguish of a mother that has her children inexplicably snatched from her grasp.

It began with a call to the Michigan Department of Human Services Child Protective Services with allegations of child abuse.

William’s eldest son, Joseph (who was 14 at the time) made up stories about how she’d physically abused him. He fabricated these stories because he wanted to stay with his father who lived in Canada.

A few days later, agents from Michigan’s Child Protective Services arrived at the school demanding to see her three children. They interrogated them without her knowledge or consent, or without the presence of lawyer, friend, or adult family member. Soon afterward…