Maura Healey joins other AGs in calling for end of family separation at border

BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is now one of 21 attorneys general calling for the Trump administration to stop its "cruel and illegal" zero-tolerance policy of separating immigrant families.

The controversial practice of separating immigrant children from their parents has come under fire in recent weeks as many detained at the southern border have been separated from their families and locked in cages.

"What the Trump administration is doing is immoral and reprehensible," Healey said in a press release Tuesday morning. "It's unimaginable that the President would try to play politics by tearing babies from their mothers and leaving toddlers stranded and crying."

Healey joined other attorneys general from around the country in signing a letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Advisoer Kirstjen Nielsen asking them to end the Department of Justice's "zero-tolerance" policy.

MORE: 5 living first ladies speak out on separation of immigrant children, parents at border

“Put simply, the deliberate separation of children and their parents who seek lawful asylum in America is wrong. This practice is contrary to American values and must be stopped,” the attorneys general wrote in the letter to Sessions and Nielson.

Former First Lady Laura Bush penned a scathing editorial in the Washington Post Sunday calling the practice "cruel and immoral."

Five living first ladies, including Melania Trump, have denounced the separation of children and their families at the border.

MORE: Recording of crying children at border adds to outrage

Cox Media Group