Three American children, one with cancer, were deported from the United States with their mothers, who are illegal immigrants, reported Agence France-Presse, citing civil liberties groups criticizing US President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant policies.
The children are between 2 and 7 years old.
A 2-year-old girl was deported with her mother to Honduras. The case has been heard in a court in the state of Louisiana. Judge Thierry Doughty has set May 16 for a hearing aimed at dispelling strong suspicions that the US government has deported an American citizen. The judge recalled that US law prohibits the deportation of US citizens abroad.
The Trump administration does not dispute the facts, but says that the deportation of the child, identified only by the initials V.M.L., is in response to the urgent request of the mother, who was sent to Honduras because she was illegally present in the United States. The girl was deported along with her Honduran mother after being administratively detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lawyers for the child's father filed a lawsuit in court seeking her urgent release from the migrant center where she was being held.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Project criticized the case of the girl, who was born in the United States. They also criticized the expulsion from New Orleans of at least two other families with children born in the United States. Among them was a boy suffering from a rare form of cancer and a pregnant woman who was also the mother of another child.