Lawyers & Advocacy Claim Three Children Who Are US Citizens Were Deported With Their Mothers Including One With Cancer

Three US citizen children, including a 4-year-old undergoing cancer treatment, were deported to Honduras with their mothers last week, raising serious concerns among attorneys and civil rights advocates about due process violations under the Trump administration. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Project report that the deportations occurred after the women, all subject to final orders of removal, were detained during routine check-ins with ICE in Louisiana through the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). One mother was deported with her 2-year-old daughter, identified in court records as V.M.L., while another mother was deported with her 4- and 7-year-old children. Despite ICE’s claim that both mothers were given a choice to leave with their children or designate a safe caregiver in the US, attorneys strongly dispute that the women were given any real option.

Gracie Willis, a lawyer representing one of the children through a petitioner, said, “We are seeing in real time due process eroded.” She rejected the claim that a handwritten note from the mother indicated consent, stating, “That is not a statement of desire.” Willis emphasized that both women had missed a single court date, leading to removal orders issued in their absence, and both had family in the US who could care for the children. One of the deported children was still in the middle of treatment for metastatic cancer, underscoring the urgency and human cost of the deportations.

Attorney Erin Hebert, who represents the mother of the two older children, said she was barred from accompanying the family to their ICE appointment and only learned later they had been detained. “My clients were deported within 24 hours of being detained with no access to me,” Hebert said. ACLU of Louisiana Executive Director Alanah Odoms added, “These are mothers, these are pregnant women. These are children.” She warned, “If ICE can do this… none of us are safe from this kind of lawlessness.” The incident highlights the broader concerns about family separation and the treatment of US citizen children caught in immigration enforcement actions.

Link: CNN