Two-year-old US citizen may have been deported without ‘meaningful process’

A federal judge says that a two-year-old US citizen may have been deported to Honduras with her mother and 11-year-old sister without due process amid the Trump administration’s drive to ramp up deportations.

In a court filing, Judge Terry Doughty said that there was “strong suspicion” that the child – identified only as VML – was deported “with no meaningful process”.

The Louisiana-born child and her family members were apprehended during a routine appointment at a New Orleans immigration office on 22 April, according to documents.

A spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security said the mother wanted to take her children with her when she was sent to Honduras.

According to the court documents, the judge had sought to arrange a phone call with the girl’s mother, but was told by a government lawyer that it “would not be possible because she (and presumably VML) had just been released in Honduras.”

The immigration status of the girl’s mother, father and sister remains unclear. The two-year-old, however, is a US citizen.

“It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a US citizen,” said the judge.

A hearing has been scheduled for 19 May “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process”.

In a statement sent to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that “the parent made the decision to take the child with them to Honduras.”

“It is common that parents want to be removed with their children,” she added.

Earlier this week, the girl’s father had also filed for a temporary transfer of legal authority, which according to state law would give his sister-in-law – also a US citizen – custody of the children.

However, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent spoke to a family attorney and “refused to honour the request” and said that the “father could try to pick her up, but that he would also be taken into custody.”

In a second, similar case in Florida, a Cuban woman with a one-year-old and a US citizen husband were detained at a scheduled immigration appointment and flown back to Cuba two days later, according to media reports.

The woman, identified as Heidy Sánchez, was still breastfeeding her daughter, who suffers from seizures, according to her lawyer. He has argued that Ms Sanchez was not a criminal and should have remained in the US on humanitarian grounds.

Thousands of undocumented immigrants have been detained since Donald Trump returned to the White House on 20 January.

Trump’s hard-line immigration policies have encountered a number of legal hurdles.

In the highest-profile case, the government admitted it mistakenly deported El Salvador national Kilmar Ábrego García, but contends he is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyer and family denies. Mr Ábrego García has never been convicted of a crime.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government should facilitate bringing back Mr Ábrego García, but the Trump administration has said he will “never” live in the US again.