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Members of Massachusetts' congressional delegation urged support Tuesday for legislation to stop the Trump administration's controversial "zero tolerance" policy, which has reportedly resulted in about 2,000 undocumented immigrant children being separated from their parents at the United States' southern border. 

Massachusetts Democrats announced that they have signed on to companion bills filed in the U.S. House and Senate, known as the "Keep Families Together Act," that seek to bar the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from separating children from their parents except in extraordinary circumstances, limit criminal prosecutions for asylum seekers, increase child welfare training and establish public policy preferences for family reunification. 

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, a Springfield Democrat and co-sponsor of the House bill, slammed the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" approach to immigration as "cruel and inhumane" and called for legislative action. 

"President Trump could stop these forcible separations with one phone call to the Department of Homeland Security. But he continues to play politics with the lives of people seeking asylum in the United States," the congressman said in a statement. "I believe this policy is wrong, does not reflect our country's basic values and should end immediately. Families belong together."

The "Keep Families Together Act" would prevent DHS from separating children from their parents unless parental rights have been terminated, a child welfare agency has issued a best interest determination or officials have approved separation due to trafficking indicators or other concerns of risk to the child, according to lawmakers.

It would require an independent child welfare official to review any such separations and return the child if no harm is present, as well as mandate all Customs and Border Protection agents to complete child welfare training on an annual basis.

Further, the legislation seeks to: delay prosecutions for asylum seekers and create an affirmative defense for them; establish a presumption that detention is not in the best interests of families and children; impose financial penalties on officials who violate the prohibition on family separation; require a report on the separation of families every six months; and charge DHS with developing policies and procedures allowing parents and children to locate each other and reunite if they have been separated. 

U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, in turn, signed on as co-sponsors of their chamber's version of the legislation introduced earlier this month.

Pointing to reports that the administration expects to take hundreds of children at the border "every day for the next two months," Markey called Tuesday for passage of the Democrat-backed bill.

The senator, a vocal critic of the administration's immigration policy, added that "it would take Donald Trump basically the same amount of effort to end the heinous family separation policy as it did to pardon Joe Arpaio."

"This is unconscionable. If Trump refuses to end this, Congress must by passing the (Keep Families Together Act" today," he tweeted, using the hashtag: #KeepFamiliesTogether.

Warren also criticized the White House for not taking action to stop the controversial family separations.

"(President Donald Trump) could pick up the phone and stop the separation of families seeking refuge in the US. Instead, he continues to hold thousands of kids hostage to try and get Congress to pay for his stupid wall. This is his policy, and he can stop it," she tweeted.

The senator further pressed the president's pick to take over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Tuesday for clarification on her role in crafting the administration's policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their families at the border.

U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, a Brookline Democrat who attended a rally on the U.S.-Mexico border over Father's Day weekend, meanwhile, spoke out against the Trump administration's policy during a Tuesday morning event at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.

Kennedy acknowledged that addressing undocumented immigration is "a legitimately hard issue," but argued it's unacceptable for the U.S. government to target young children. 

He, however, offered that he's encouraged by the public's reaction to the controversial policy.

"If there is a silver lining to this, which I'm not so sure there is, but if there is one, it's that there's a sense of outrage that is building across this country, which again, is not partisan," he said, noting that Republicans have also introduced legislation to end the practice. 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in April that the administration would take a "zero tolerance" approach to illegal immigration, directing all U.S. attorneys who serve in districts along the United States' southern border with Mexico to criminally prosecute all cases of attempted illegal entry or illegal entry that are referred by DHS.

The policy reportedly led DHS to separate about 2,000 children from their parents, as children are not allowed in adult criminal detention facilities. The children were placed in the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to reports. 

DHS has rejected claims that it has a blanket policy to separate families at the border, stating Monday that it will separate adults and minors under certain circumstances, including: when it's unable to determine the familial relationship, when it determines a child may be at risk with the parent or legal guardian or when a parent or legal guardian is referred for criminal prosecution.

The agency further noted that it only refers to the Department of Justice "those adults who violate the law by crossing the border illegally and are amenable for prosecution."

"When adults, with or without children, unlawfully enter this country, there must be a consequence for breaking our laws," DHS officials said.