Trump deports children, including one with cancer

According to civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Immigration Project (NIP), the deportations took place at dawn on Friday from New Orleans, Louisiana. These NGOs denounced Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policy and the fate of the two families, who had been living in the United States for several years.

Among them is a 4-year-old boy with a “rare form of cancer” and a “pregnant mother”, reports the American Civil Liberties Union.

The families were arrested while attending routine appointments with Louisiana authorities under the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), according to their attorneys and court documents.

“We are seeing in real time due process eroded,” said Gracie Willis, raid response coordinator for NIP and the attorney representing the 2-year-old. “That is deeply concerning and these cases are an illustration of that.”

According to CNN, the 2-year-old girl was deported with her mother, who is currently pregnant. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested the individuals on Tuesday during a routine check, according to an emergency petition filed in federal court.

The girl’s case is currently being heard by a federal judge in Louisiana, marking a new conflict between the American judicial system and the executive branch.

Judge Terry Doughty has scheduled a hearing for May 16 “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process,” reads a court document made public on Friday. The document also points out that U.S. law prohibits the deportation of a U.S. national.

According to the court order, the Trump administration does not dispute the facts, but claims that it was the mother herself who requested that her child, identified by her initials “V.M.L.”, to leave with her via a handwritten note allegedly written by the mother in Spanish. However, the magistrate disputes the court’s formal lack of knowledge of this.

Gracie Willis also rejected the idea that V.M.L.’s mother wanted to take her child to Honduras. According to her, the handwritten note “is not a statement of desire.”

The second case is similar: the mother was arrested on Thursday after taking her 4- and 7-year-old children to an ISAP appointment in Saint Rose, near New Orleans, according to her lawyer Erin Hebert. The Honduran woman, who had been living in south Louisiana for over ten years without legal status, had been invited to the appointment with her two children and their passports, Hebert told CNN on Sunday.

When they arrived, Hebert indicated that she had not been authorized to accompany the family to the meeting. About 20-30 minutes later, she was informed that the family had been arrested, without being told where they had been taken.

In an interview with CNN, the lawyer also said that the mothers wanted their children to stay in the United States. The 4-year-old boy, for example, was still undergoing cancer treatment, she pointed out. What’s more, both women had family in the U.S., according to Willis and Hebert.

This event is part of a growing number of legal disputes concerning illegal immigration in the United States. Among the emblematic cases is that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran wrongly deported to a mega-prison in his country of origin. The American justice system ordered his return, but to no avail.