Forty-eight current and former police chiefs and sheriffs, all members of the pro-immigration Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force (LEITF), signed the letter against the policy detaining immigrant families.
LEITF launched in 2015 and is backed by the National Immigration Forum.
The officials wrote that while they were encouraged by President Trump's order ending the policy of separating immigrant families at the border, they "do not believe that across-the-board family detention is the solution to family separation."