Deporting the Cancer Kid
What do you do with U.S. citizen children when a noncitizen parent is deported? The Trump administration has so far answered this question by saying, Well, actually, it’s not much of a question at all, hurry up and deport them already, let’s not ask any questions or consult any lawyers.
Terry Doughty, a U.S. district judge in Louisiana, says that a 2-year-old U.S. citizen was deported with her pregnant mother to Honduras. “Lawyers representing the father of the 2-year-old U.S. citizen who was deported, identified as V.M.L. in court documents, filed an emergency petition in the Western District of Louisiana on Thursday seeking her release,” reports The Washington Post. “The child was put on a plane to Honduras the next morning before the court opened.”
Doughty, who President Donald Trump appointed, issued an order expressing his fear that the toddler had been deported against her father’s wishes, noting that it is “illegal and unconstitutional” to deport U.S. citizens. “The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the Court doesn’t know that,” wrote the judge. “Seeking the path of least resistance, the Court called counsel for the Government at 12:19 p.m. CST, so that we could speak with VML’s mother and survey her consent and custodial rights. The Court was independently aware at the time that the plane, tail number N570TA, was above the Gulf of America. The Court was then called back by counsel for the Government at 1:06 p.m. CST, informing the Court that a call with VML’s mother would not be possible, because she (and presumably VML) had just been released in Honduras.” A hearing is set for May 16 due to the judge’s “strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin subsequently declared that the “parent made the decision to take the child with them to Honduras,” adding that “it is common that parents want to be removed with their children.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allegedly prevented the woman from speaking with her lawyers or making arrangements with family members for the care of the child, notifying the father that both mother and child had been taken into ICE custody but denying him information about the whereabouts of his child. The mother “was granted less than one minute on the phone before the call was abruptly terminated when her spouse tried to provide legal counsel’s phone number,” according to attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Doughty’s sharp criticism of the Trump administration is particularly notable because he issued a series of major decisions in favor of Trump and his allies in recent years, most notably backing conservatives in legal challenges to the Biden administration’s efforts to rein in what it claimed was misinformation on social media platforms about vaccines and certain politically charged topics,” reports Pol
Article from Reason.com
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