New York is suing Trump admin over constitutional rights of families separated at the border

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that he was directing state agencies to sue the Trump administration to defend the constitutional right of migrant families seeking asylum who were subjected to separation at the border.

"A moral failing and a human tragedy"

"The Trump Administration's policy to tear apart families is a moral failing and a human tragedy," Cuomo said in a statement released Tuesday.

The Trump administration's policy to tear apart families is a moral failing and a human tragedy. We will not tolerate the Constitutional rights of children and their parents being violated by our federal government. This heartless policy must end once and for all.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) June 19, 2018

"We will not tolerate the Constitutional rights of children and their parents being violated by our federal government," he added. "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."

The statement went to explain their argument that the policies of the Trump administration were violating the Constitution.

"Parents are being separated from their children at the border as a result of the Trump Administration's new 'zero tolerance' prosecution of the minor federal offense of improper entry into the country," the statement said.

"In prior administrations, families who appeared with children at the border would be processed together and released with a date to appear in court," it explained. "Now, parents, many of whom are seeking to protect their children and families from gang violence, are being systematically detained, separated from their children, and, in some cases, deported with no meaningful opportunity to participate in making decisions concerning the care and custody of their children."

"Yet these parents are still afforded rights under the United States Constitution to familial integrity and to decide to exercise their parental rights in New York State," the statement argued.

The White House and its allies have argued that the specific policy that leads to families being separated was enacted long before President Donald Trump was voted into office. Trump has blamed Democrats for the "obsolete and nasty laws."