According to their lawyers, three children with US citizenship were given last Friday illegal Louisiana flown to Honduras. This story quickly attracted nationwide attention.
Lawyers: Children with US citizenship deported without a legal hearing
The legal support of the two families from Louisiana reports Rolling Stone that both mothers were helpless. They stated that they were not given a way to keep their children with US citizenship in the country. The mothers had been informed that their children would be deported to them despite their citizenship. Although both families had legal guardians who were ready to take the children into their care.
Defense by Marco Rubio and Tom Homan: The presentation of the government
After the news of the deportations on the weekend triggered indignation nationwide, Foreign Minister occurred Marco Rubio and Donald Trumps Border officer Tom Homan on TV on to defend the deportations. They insisted that the mothers had decided to take their children with them.
Rubio: “Mothers decided to take children with them”
Rubio described the story as “misleading” and said: “Three US citizens aged four, seven and two years were not deported. Her mothers, who are illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers.”
Homan: “No court order, no official deportation”
Homan even went so far that the children could not have been deported. Because deportations of one Immigration judge be arranged.
Critical voices: Lawyers throw government conscious misleading
In the meantime, the lawyers of the families say that their clients have neither granted a decent procedure nor access to lawyers. A hearing. Or even phone calls. This despite multiple applications to delay the deportations until a judge can hear their cases.
Tragic individual fates: illness, separation and helplessness
Erin Hebert, Senior Associate at the law firm Ware Immigration in the area of New Orleans, represents the mother of the seven -year -old girl and the four -year -old boy, who is in active treatment for metastatic cancer.
The case of the cancer boy without medication
The boy is that Second children with Cancer with US citizenshipwhich Trump has deported in his second term. At the weekend, Hebert was in contact with the mother, who is currently in Honduras with her two children. The children’s father remains in the United States.
“She was told that she would be deported with her children. And she asked: ‘Why my children?'” “They refused to answer her. They gave her no options. No way to take precautions. She never signed anything. Never gave them permission. She never indicated that she wanted her to come.”
Effects on families: fathers are desperately left behind
On Thursday morning, the mother contacted the US immigration and customs authority (ICE) to be routinely checked. Less than 24 hours later, she and her two children sat on a plane to Honduras.
“We immediately worked on organizing an alternative guardianship. So that the children are not deported together with their mother as soon as they are all detained,” says Hebert. She says that the ICE knew before the message that the four -year -old was in active cancer treatment. They brought him out of the country without his medication and without consulting his doctors.
Children’s rights disregarded: no possibility for protection and care
Hebert belongs to a group of right -wing experts and lawyers who have come together to prevent the two families from being deported. This group also includes Gracie Willis from the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. Willis represented the two -year -old child of the pregnant mother, who was deported. And is managed as VML in the court documents.
Both Hebert and Willis tried to take legal action in order to prevent the deportation of families at least temporarily. However, they were only able to speak to their clients after their arrival in Honduras.
“It is completely clear that the presentation of the consent by the ICE is undoubtedly wrong and a smooth lie,” says Willis. “The ICE offered mothers no other alternative than taking their children with US citizenship. They had no choice. They were not offered any options.”
Legal reactions and new developments in the case
Willis explains that the ICE has submitted a note that is supposedly handwritten by the mother of VML. In it standing In Spanish: “I’ll take my daughter to Honduras.” Willis says the letter seems to have been written on a hotel note block. Parts have been blackened to hide the name and location of the hotel.
“This is not an expression of a wish. No expression of a longing. No expression of a desire,” says Willis. “It is an expression of a fact that was told by the ICE.”
Gonzalez, who works at Sanctuary of the South, is one of VML’s lawyers. “Both mothers have clearly expressed that they felt under extreme pressure in this situation that the ICE essentially forced them to do so deportation To accept with their children, “says Gonzalez.” Both have explained that the ICE has repeatedly rejected its applications for a telephone call, a legal proceedings, a conversation with a judge and a conversation with anyone by phone, including family members or possibly lawyers. “
“These children are US citizens. They can return to the United States if their father or someone else is here who wants to accept them”
In both cases, the fathers concerned remained in the United States. “The fathers are desperate about this cruel separation from their families,” says Gonzalez.
Rubio was on Sunday In the program “Meet the press“To a guest. He stated several times that the two mothers had deliberately decided to take their children with US citizenship when they were deported.
“These children are US citizens. They can return to the United States if their father or someone else is here who wants to accept them,” said Rubio. “Ultimately, their mothers were deported, who were illegally here. The children simply went with their mothers. But it was not the way they represent it as if ICE official had entered the door, packed the two-year-old and thrown him into an airplane. That is misleading.” (The deported two -year -old child is a girl.)
“The parents make this decision”
Rubio claimed that parents who are deported have two options. Either take your child with you or leave it behind. “The parents make this decision,” he said. And added that journalists would otherwise print headlines like: “USA hold two -year -old, four -year -old and seven -year -olds as hostages while her mother is deported.”
Willis contradicts this. “Minister Rubio repeats the same lies of the ICE without ever talking to these families.”
Gonzalez adds: “All three children had the legal right to stay here. With people who were ready and willing to accept them. And with the legal right to accept them. And none of them were given this possibility by ICE.”
Homan appeared in the program “Face the Nation”. He repeated Rubios claim that the mothers had decided to take their children with them. “No child with US citizenship was deported,” said Homan. “Disconnected means that this was ordered by an immigration judge.”
Political and social consequences of the children’s deportation
A federal judge in Louisiana has issued a short decision in which he asks why the Trump government sent the two-year-old VML to Honduras. Although her father tried to prevent his daughter’s deportation.
“The government claims that everything is okay. Because the mother wants the child to be deported with her,” judge Terry Doughty wrote. ‘But the court doesn’t know. “
Doughty started a hearing for May 16. He said that he had “suspected strong suspicion that the government has just deported a US citizen without a meaningful procedure”. And confirmed that it is “illegal and unconstitutional to deport a US citizen”.