18 attorneys general sue Trump administration over family separations

Asylum seekers with the Border Patrol.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

On Tuesday, 18 attorneys general joined together to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration's separation of undocumented migrant children from their parents at the border, with New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood's office calling the practice "irrationally discriminatory" because it "targets only people crossing our southwestern border, the majority of whom are from Latin America, and not anyone crossing the northern border or entering the United States elsewhere."

The Trump administration enacted a "zero tolerance" policy that in recent weeks resulted in at least 2,300 kids being separated from their parents, and the lawsuit argues the administration "violated the constitutional due process rights of the parents and children by separating them as a matter of course and without any finding that the parent poses a threat to the children." Last week, Trump signed an executive order that he said stopped the separations, but the order does not say the policy of prosecuting undocumented adults is over.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.