In recent days, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported a two-year-old American citizen and a Cuban-born mother of a one-year-old girl, sparking legal challenges and raising serious questions about deportation practices.
The cases highlight concerns regarding who is being deported and the processes involved, especially amid ongoing debates in federal courts about whether the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies are violating fundamental rights.
Lawyers for the families involved in both cases described how their clients were detained during routine check-ins at ICE offices, with little to no opportunity to consult with legal counsel or family members before being swiftly deported within just two to three days.
In one case, a federal judge in Louisiana questioned the legality of the deportation of a two-year-old American citizen. The judge expressed skepticism that the government had properly carried out the removal, prompting further investigation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Immigration Project, and other advocacy groups have condemned these actions, calling them “shocking – although increasingly common – abuses of power.”
In Louisiana, the mother of the two-year-old girl, a Honduran citizen, was arrested during a scheduled ICE check-in alongside her young daughter and her 11-year-old daughter, who also faced deportation. While the mother and the older daughter had outstanding deportation orders, the young child’s citizenship status raised further concerns. The child’s father has argued that he wanted his daughter to remain in the U.S., while ICE claimed the mother requested the deportation. However, this claim was not fully examined by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who scheduled a hearing on May 16 to address the case. Doughty expressed concerns over the process, suggesting that the deportation of a U.S. citizen child may have occurred without due process.
The situation escalated when government lawyers tried to contact the mother while she was on a deportation flight, only to be informed later that she had already been released in Honduras. Lawyers representing the child’s father revealed that ICE had held the toddler in an attempt to pressure the father into turning himself in, although details about his immigration status remain unclear.
Meanwhile, in Florida, the case of Heidy Sánchez, a Cuban-born woman and mother of a one-year-old U.S. citizen, has drawn attention. Sánchez, who is married to a U.S. citizen, was detained during a routine check-in at an ICE office in Tampa. Despite still breastfeeding her infant daughter, who suffers from seizures, Sánchez was deported to Cuba just two days later. Her lawyer, Claudia Cañizares, attempted to file paperwork to contest the deportation but was told by ICE that Sánchez had already been sent back to Cuba. Cañizares expressed skepticism about the timing, alleging that ICE had refused to allow her to intervene in the case.
Cañizares further criticized ICE for ignoring Sánchez’s humanitarian case, noting that her client is not a criminal and has a legitimate reason to remain in the U.S. under humanitarian grounds. Sánchez had been previously detained for nine months due to an outstanding deportation order related to a missed hearing in 2019, but after Cuba refused to accept her back at that time, she was released in 2020 with instructions to check in regularly with ICE.
As the legal battles continue, these cases underscore growing concerns over the speed and methods of deportation under the current immigration system, raising questions about the rights of U.S. citizen children and the fairness of enforcement practices.
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