A coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia is suing the Trump administration over the separation of children from their parents at the southern border, arguing the practice is unconstitutional.
Filed in federal court in Seattle on Tuesday, the lawsuit asks the court to block the Trump administration from enforcing its family separation practice and order the administration to reunite all families who have been separated immediately. The states denounced the policy as “cruel and unlawful” and argued it is “motivated by animus and a desire to harm” immigrants from Latin America arriving at the Southern border.
“This is not who we are as a country, and we won’t stand by as the Trump administration undermines the Constitution and our rights,” New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in a statement.
[Also read: Parents separated from kids at the border sue to be reunited, demand mental health services for emotional trauma]
The lawsuit from the states comes after Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced last week a group of states would challenge the Trump administration’s immigration policy in court.
Under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance immigration policy, all adults who are apprehended illegally crossing the border are referred for criminal prosecution. The policy has led to children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with their families to be separated from their parents.
The Department of Homeland Security said more than 2,300 children had been separated from their families.
The family separations was fiercely opposed by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and President Trump issued an executive order last week meant to end the separations.
Trump’s order would allow for children to remain detained with their parents through criminal proceedings, but doing so requires a federal court to alter a 1997 settlement agreement, called the Flores Settlement, that prohibits the federal government from detaining children for more than 20 days.
The president’s order instructed the attorney general to request the Flores Settlement be modified, and the Justice Department formally filed its request last week.
But the lawsuit from the coalition of states dismisses Trump’s executive order and said the relief offered in it is “illusory.”
“The order says nothing about reuniting the families already ripped apart by the federal government, and the Trump administration officials have made clear that the order will have no impact on the thousands of families who have already been traumatized,” the lawsuit states.
In addition to claiming the family separations policy is unconstitutional, the states also argue the administration’s policy regarding asylum seekers violates federal law.
Suing the Trump administration are Washington, Massachusetts, California, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
