Cuomo Plans To Sue Trump Administration over Immigrant Children

Over 70 immigrant children separated from their parents at the Mexican border are in New York, mostly in the Hudson Valley.

On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced New York State intends to file a multi-agency lawsuit against the Trump administration on the grounds that the federal government is violating the Constitutional rights of thousands of immigrant children and their parents who have been separated at the border.

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"The Trump Administration's policy to tear apart families is a moral failing and a human tragedy," Cuomo said. "We will not tolerate the Constitutional rights of children and their parents being violated by our federal government. New York will act and file suit to end this callous and deliberate attack on immigrant communities, and end this heartless policy once and for all."

According to the Governor's Office, parents are being separated from their children at the border as a result of the Trump Administration's new "zero tolerance" policy. In prior administrations, families who appeared with children at the border would be processed together and released with a date to appear in court.

Cuomo said he knows of over 70 children separated from their parents who are staying in federal shelters in New York State. The children are staying in Kingston, Dobbs Ferry, Lincolndale, Irvington, Bronx and Syosset, according to the New York Post.

“Since the zero-tolerance policy has been put in place, these children have been sent to these facilities under the federal government’s UAC program, unaccompanied alien child — except they’re not unaccompanied alien children. They were accompanied,” Cuomo said.

Officials believe the number of children separated from their parents at the border staying in New York will increase.