Seventeen US states sue President Trump over immigration policy ruckus

The Donald Trump administration faced more flak at home as 17 states of the US sued it on Tuesday, June 26, to force officials to reunite migrant families that were separated at the southern border.

The states, including New York, Washington and California, took the legal step after accusing the government of denying rights to the migrants. The Trump administration separated children from their migrant parents who were dealt with legally for crossing the border illegally, sparking an uproar, both at home and abroad.

The 17 states, all led by Democratic attorney generals, filed the lawsuit in the US District Court in Seattle. The attorney generals blasted the Trump administration's immigration policy undertakings as "cruel" and said it was issuing "new, contradictory policies" often.

Facing a backlash from various sections of the society - political and apolitical - President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 20 to reverse the decision of separating the families but the damage was far too big to be controlled, by then.

Over 2,000 children have been isolated from their parents at the US-Mexico border in recent weeks and put in shelters located several hundreds of miles away. Recently, US First Lady Melania Trump visited the border area in Texas to have a first-hand knowledge about the ground reality after expressing her disappointment over separating children from their families.

To add to the Trump administration's embarrassment, Kevin K. McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection said on Monday, May 25, that he had informed the border agents not to hand over families to the Justice Department for legal proceedings until a policy on agreed upon whereby parents will not be prosecuted without getting separating from their children.

The protesting attorney generals said although Trump reversed his controversial move, it still didn't guarantee that the separated children will be reunited with their parents any time soon.