‘Unlawful, inhumane’: Trump administration defends deporting US citizen children

The Trump administration deported three U.S. citizen children along with their mothers, an action that has drawn strong criticism and raised significant legal concerns. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Immigration Project, and other advocacy groups called the deportations a “shocking, though increasingly frequent, abuse of power,” arguing that proper legal procedures were not followed.

Per NewsNationNow, The White House defended the deportations, stating that the mothers chose to bring their children with them. The three cases involved children ages 2, 4, and 7, all U.S. citizens, who were deported with their Honduran mothers. As reported by PBS, in one case, a mother was deported with her 4- and 7-year-old children. The 4-year-old has a rare form of cancer, leading to worries about whether the child would receive the necessary medical treatment.

This family was sent to Honduras within a day of being detained. Another case involved a 2-year-old deported with her mother. A federal judge in Louisiana scheduled a hearing to look into how ICE handled this deportation, expressing serious doubts that proper procedures were followed. The judge stated that deporting a U.S. citizen without fair legal steps is both illegal and unconstitutional.

White House defends deportation tactics currently under investigation

The government claimed the mother had asked to take her child, pointing to a handwritten note as evidence. However, the child’s lawyers disputed this, saying the mother was not given a real chance to make such a decision. The 2-year-old’s father, whose immigration status was not shared, said he wanted his daughter to stay in the U.S. and had legally given custody to his sister-in-law, a U.S. citizen.

The government tried to contact the mother during her deportation flight to speak with her, but she had already been released in Honduras by the time they landed. Another case involved a pregnant Honduran mother and her 2-year-old child. Similar concerns were raised about the speed of the deportation and whether proper legal steps were taken.

All the mothers had previously received deportation orders, but the details of these orders remain unclear. Advocates for the families argue that the mothers were not given a choice about what would happen to their children and that the deportation process was rushed, preventing them from getting legal help or making arrangements for their children’s care.

Trump administration officials denied these accusations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the children went with their mothers willingly and could return to the U.S. if other family members wanted them back. Ron Vitiello, a senior advisor for Customs and Border Protection, also claimed the children were not deported, stressing that the mothers had supposedly made a choice. These statements directly conflict with what the families’ lawyers have said.

Rubio said on NBC’s Meet the Press, “If someone’s in this country unlawfully, illegally, that person gets deported. If that person is with a 2-year-old child, or has a 2-year-old child and says, ‘I want to take my child … with me,’ well then … you have two choices… You can say, yes, of course. You can take your child, whether they’re a citizen or not, because it’s your child, or you can say, yes, you can go, but your child must stay behind.”

In another incident, a Cuban-born mother with a 1-year-old child who suffers from seizures was deported from Florida after a scheduled check-in with ICE. Her lawyer said the mother was sent to Cuba despite ongoing legal efforts to stop the deportation and despite the child’s medical needs. The lawyer accused ICE of focusing on meeting deportation quotas rather than considering individual cases and humanitarian concerns.