California Governor Gavin Newsom and AG Xavier Bacerra announced another laws against the Trump administration “challenging a new rule that allows indefinite detention of migrant children and their families.”
“No child deserves to be left in conditions inappropriate and harmful for their age,” Becerra said Monday. “The actions by this administration are not just morally reprehensible, they’re illegal. Children don’t become subhuman simply because they are migrants.”
Although 19 other states have joined CA in the latest legal battle against the Trump administration, this particular lawsuit marks “the 57th legal challenge filed by CA, “13 of which involve immigration policies, including a dispute over funding for a new border wall.”
CA argues that the administration’s new policy to hold minors indefinitely directly violates the Flores Act of 1997, which clearly states the government cannot hold children who come to this country more than 20 days.
In an interview last week, Trump claimed his recent policy changes resulted out of humanitarian needs at the boarder.
“Very much I have the children on my mind. It bothers me very greatly,” the president told reporters at the White House. “When they see you can’t get into the United States … they won’t come. And many people will be saved. Many women’s lives will not be destroyed.”
CA disagrees and stated Trump’s new policy “interferes with the states’ ability to help ensure the health, safety and welfare of children by undermining state licensing requirements for facilities where children are held.“
The complaint also alleges the Trump administration’s new policy will result in “the vast expansion of family detention centers, which are not state-licensed facilities and have been found to cause increased trauma in children”
