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Mayor Says Damage Already Inflicted On Immigrant Children

EL PASO (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Concerns persist about the emotional trauma inflicted on immigrant children even after President Trump's order to halt the separation minors from families that are detained crossing the U.S. border illegally.

Mayors from more than a dozen cities across the United States converged Thursday morning on a holding facility for immigrant children on Texas' border with Mexico to demand that families that were divided while trying to enter the U.S. illegally be immediately reunited.

New York City's Bill de Blasio, Los Angeles' Eric Garcetti and Democratic mayors from new Mexico's three most populous cities planned to gather on the outskirts of El Paso.

Santa Fe, N.M. Mayor Alan Webber says the president's zero-tolerance approach to illegal border crossings has traumatized children and remains a humanitarian threat.

The spike in family separations in recent weeks was a result of the Trump administration adopting a "zero tolerance" policy in April, which meant all unlawful border crossings were referred for prosecution.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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