HARRISBURG — Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday that he, along with 17 other Attorneys General, have filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration challenging policy that led to the separation of families on the U.S. southern border.
The suit comes six days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order keeping families together, CNN reported.
The Office of Attorney General release states that the lawsuit alleges four main arguments:
- Policy violates the rights of parents and children under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which holds: “No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
- Administration engaged in discrimination on the basis of nationality or ethnicity through its policy of child separation
- Administration acted arbitrarily and capriciously under the Administrative Procedure Act by implementing the policy without justification and in conflict with laws requiring government to consider children’s well-being
- Policy is inconsistent with our nation’s asylum laws, which allow non-citizens who face persecution in their home country to seek asylum upon arrival in the United States
“The federal government is treating children like prisoners; detaining them behind chain-link cage fencing, and cutting them off from communication with their parents. This is unconscionable treatment,” Attorney General Shapiro said. “Washington must act to pass comprehensive immigration reform and using family separation as punishment is ineffective, cruel and inhumane.”
The states joining the lawsuit, in addition to Pennsylvania, include: Washington, Massachusetts, California, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
