US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have in recent days deported a Cuban-born mother of a one-year-old girl, separating them indefinitely, and in another case a two-year-old girl who is an American citizen along with her Honduran-born mother, their lawyers say.
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Both cases raise questions about who is being deported, and why, and come amid a battle in federal courts over whether US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone too far and too quickly at the expense of fundamental rights.
Lawyers in the two cases described how their clients were arrested at routine check-ins at ICE offices, given virtually no opportunity to speak with lawyers or their family members and then deported within two or three days.
A federal judge in Louisiana raised questions about the deportation of the two-year-old girl, saying the government had not proven that it had done so properly.
The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other allied groups said in a statement that that case and another in New Orleans that involves deporting children who are US citizens are a “shocking – although increasingly common – abuse of power”.
Lawyers for the girl’s father insisted he wanted the girl to remain with him in the US, while ICE contended the mother had wanted the girl to be deported with her to Honduras, claims that were not fully vetted by US District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana.