Three children under age 10—all US citizens—have been deported along with their mothers, lawyers for the families said, including a 4-year-old who has stage 4 cancer and was removed without medication. US officials said the mothers, who were in the US without documentation, chose to take their children when they were sent back to Honduras on Friday, the Washington Post reports. They were not allowed to speak with family members, legal representatives, or doctors before being removed, the lawyers said. US District Judge Terry Doughty later scheduled a May 16 hearing in one case to investigate his "strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process."
The two families were taken into custody in New Orleans at a routine check-in under a program that lets people remain in their communities during immigration proceedings. Immigration and Customs Enforcement then took them to Alexandria, Louisiana, and placed the children and their mothers on a flight to Honduras, the lawyers said. The children are 2, 4, and 7 years old, per the Post. The father of the 2-year-old filed an emergency petition for her release on Thursday, which included her birth certificate showing she was born in Louisiana, but the plane took off before court opened the next morning. "It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a US citizen," the judge pointed out, per the BBC.
Because the women were not allowed to speak to legal representatives, "We have absolutely no idea whether they ever actually did give consent for their children to come with them or if they did under what kind of duress and what other options were presented to them," said Gracie Willis, the father's lawyer. "The government contends that this is all OK because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her," wrote Doughty, who was appointed by President Trump. "But the court doesn't know that." (More deportation stories.)
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