Texas speaker urges Trump to end zero-tolerance policy

A crowd fills the Legacy Room at City Hall as Mayor Sylvester Turner speaks during a news conference opposing the proposal to place immigrant children separated from their parents at the border in a facility just east of downtown, Tuesday, June 19, 2018, in Houston. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
A crowd fills the Legacy Room at City Hall as Mayor Sylvester Turner speaks during a news conference opposing the proposal to place immigrant children separated from their parents at the border in a facility just east of downtown, Tuesday, June 19, 2018, in Houston. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)

AUSTIN-Texas House Speaker Joe Straus is among the GOP lawmakers coming out against the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy that has resulted in children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Straus sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Tuesday. The legislator from San Antonio said there's no federal law requiring separating children from parents and doing so adds to the trauma that they have often faced in their countries of origin.

Straus, who's not seeking re-election, asked the president to listen to the growing number of Americans, faith leaders and elected officials from both parties who have criticized the policy.

Hundreds of immigrant children are at a detention center in McAllen.

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