18 Democratic attorneys general sue Trump over family separations

Seventeen states and Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Trump administration over the separations of migrant families at the border.

The lawsuit, filed by 18 Democratic attorneys general, seeks to force the Trump administration to reunite more than 2,000 children with  their parents.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey are leading the coalition.

The lawsuit alleges that the “zero-tolerance” policy to prosecute more illegal border crossers and separate them from their children is in violation of immigrants’ constitutional rights, and is illegally inflicting trauma on children.

{mosads}The lawsuit is the first legal challenge by states over the policy.

President Trump signed an executive order last week to halt the separations of families, but the complaint says that the order does not address the reunification of families, and is “so vague and equivocal that it is unclear when or if any changes will actually be made.”

Becerra said in a release that Trump’s policy is a “heartless political maneuver.”

“Child internment camps in America…the Trump Administration has hit a new low. President Trump’s indifference towards the human rights of the children and parents who have been ripped away from one another is chilling,” Becerra said.