New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says the Trump administration housed hundreds of migrant children in New York City without his knowledge.
Some 350 migrant children who were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border were sent to Cayuga Centers, an immigration foster facility in New York City’s Harlem neighbourhood, De Blasio told CNN.
WATCH: NYC mayor visits facility holding 239 children separated from their families at border
He said 239 children remain at the facility, and some of them have bed bugs, lice and contagious diseases like chicken pox.
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For its part, Cayuga Centers says it receives funding from the Office of Refugee Resettlement to offer short-term beds for unaccompanied migrant children and place them in Spanish-speaking foster homes until they can be reunited with family or returned to their country of origin.
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Lawmakers in several other states also protested the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson said California, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon and Pennsylvania would join a lawsuit against the Trump administration,.
“Children belong with their families, not alone and fearful in metal cages,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a written statement. “We are filing this lawsuit because ripping children from their parents is unlawful, wrong and heartless.”
— With files from The Associated Press