{"id":146940,"date":"2018-06-27T00:35:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T00:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/migrant-family-separations-states-sue-trump-administration\/"},"modified":"2018-06-27T00:35:51","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T00:35:51","slug":"migrant-family-separations-states-sue-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/migrant-family-separations-states-sue-trump-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"Migrant family separations: States sue Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p06c37pg.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionThe cost of detention v the alternatives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Seventeen US states have sued the Trump administration over its &quot;cruel and unlawful&quot; break-up of migrant families.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic attorneys general from states including Washington, New York and California launched the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>The legal action objects to the policy of refusing entry to asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Vice-President Mike Pence has warned undocumented immigrants not to &quot;risk the lives of your children&quot; by trying to enter the US illegally.<\/p>\n<p>At a news conference in Brazil, Mr Pence said he had a message &quot;straight from my heart&quot; for those planning a journey to America: &quot;If you can&#039;t come legally, don&#039;t come at all.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Don&#039;t risk your lives or the lives of your children by trying to come to the United States on a road run by drug smugglers and human traffickers,&quot; Mr Pence added.<\/p>\n<p>Massachusetts, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia plus the District of Columbia are the other states suing President Donald Trump&#039;s administration.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>US pauses migrant family prosecutions<\/li>\n<li>Two US military bases to house migrants<\/li>\n<li>Migrant families face chaos to reunite<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In legal action filed on Tuesday with the US District Court in Seattle, Washington, Mr Trump&#039;s 20 June order to keep migrant families together was also described as &quot;illusory&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>It is the first legal challenge over family separation from the states, which argue that the Republican president&#039;s executive order denies migrant families due process and the right to seek asylum.<\/p>\n<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p06brvby.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionDrone footage shows a &quot;tent city&quot; immigration centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Last week, Mr Trump called for speedy deportations, just days after he issued the executive order.<\/p>\n<p>States are now seeking a court order to reunite families and end the separation practice by declaring it &quot;contrary to the Constitution&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday&#039;s lawsuit states that Mr Trump&#039;s order does not mandate the end of family separation and says nothing about reuniting families who have already been separated.<\/p>\n<p>It also calls the policy &quot;an affront&quot; to the states&#039; interests in maintaining standards of care for children and preserving parent-child relationships.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The policy, and the administration&#039;s related conduct, has caused severe and immediate harm to the States and their residents.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p06bw20z.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionCisary Reynaud has not spoken to his daughter since they were separated<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement that the practice of separating families &quot;is cruel, plain and simple&quot;, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Every day, it seems like the administration is issuing new, contradictory policies and relying on new, contradictory justifications. But we can&#039;t forget - the lives of real people hang in the balance.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>A press release from New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood referenced migrant children held in New York City who have had to be treated for depression, anxiety and suicidal behaviour.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;By tearing children away from their parents and sending them hundreds of miles away, the Trump administration has already caused unfathomable trauma to these children, while undermining New York&#039;s fundamental interests in protecting their health, safety, and wellbeing,&quot; Ms Underwood said.<\/p>\n<p>During a conference call with US media on Tuesday, the US health department&#039;s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) confirmed that 2,047 migrant children were currently still in the care of the agency.<\/p>\n<p>The children have been sent to holding cells, converted warehouses, desert tents or foster care around the US.<\/p>\n<p>ORR said there are 11,800 children in the agency&#039;s nationwide shelter network. Most of these children are unaccompanied minors who came across the border without a parent or guardian.<\/p>\n<p>ORR director Scott Lloyd refused to say whether the agency was still receiving migrant children who had been separated from their families.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Getty Images<figcaption>Image caption                                      Migrant parents wait to hear about their separated children from the Office of Refugee Resettlement                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have also requested information about the cost of family separation from DHS and HHS Secretaries Alex Azar and Kirstjen Nielsen.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The public deserves a complete and thorough accounting of exactly how much of their money you have spent breaking up thousands of families on our southern border,&quot; the letter reads. <\/p>\n<p>More than 100 congressional lawmakers have signed the accounting request, which gives the agencies a deadline of 10 July to detail the costs.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the nation&#039;s top border security official told reporters in Texas he had temporarily stopped referring migrants who illegally entered the country with children for criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n<p>Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said it followed Mr Trump&#039;s order, but the president had suggested detaining families together instead.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit is similar to the case against the Trump administration&#039;s travel ban, which was initially blocked by Hawaii until the Supreme Court reversed the ruling on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>              The best way to get news on the go<br \/>Download the BBC News App.                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/bbc_news_logo.svg\"\/>                                       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/google_play_store.svg\"\/>                              <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/ios_app_store.svg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media playback is unsupported on your deviceMedia captionThe cost of detention v the alternatives Seventeen US states have sued the Trump administration over its &quot;cruel and unlawful&quot; break-up of migrant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}