(Bloomberg) -- A group of 19 states sued the Trump administration over its plan to detain migrant families indefinitely while their immigration cases are heard, alleging the plan would put children at risk.

The new rule would circumvent a 22-year-old settlement agreement that governs the treatment of detained migrant children, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Monday in a statement.

“This new Trump rule callously puts at risk the safety and well-being of children,” Becerra said. “It undermines a decades-old agreement reached in court by the federal government to prevent the unlawful detention of immigrant children.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider

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