Donald Trump deported a two-year-old girl allegedly without “a meaningful process”.
The toddler, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was booted out of the country with her mother even though she was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2023. The family is taking legal action and an initial report by the judge confirms a hearing has been scheduled “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process”.
Immigration officials had detained the girl’s Honduran-born mother and sister on Tuesday during a regular check-in at the New Orleans office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since the mother arrived to the US, she had settled in the city and had her youngest daughter.
The three relatives were deported to Honduras on Tuesday, it is believed, and Politico reports the girl’s dad has been denied by US authorities the chance to have a substantive phone call with the mum.
The court hearing has been scheduled for Friday May 16. US District Judge Terry Doughty, appointed by Mr Trump, will investigate claims the toddler’s mother had requested she take the infant with her to Honduras. Mr Trump’s administration says, if this was the case, they were right to deport the girl as well as her sister and parent.
Media in the US reports a court filing includes a handwritten note in Spanish in which the mother confirms her intent. However, legal teams are working to verify the accuracy of this information. Mr Doughty said: “The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the Court doesn’t know that.”
And the debacle has left the two-year-old’s dad frantically scrambling to get all three relatives back to New Orleans, which as a city voted for The Democratic Party last year while the wider state of Louisiana, largely rural, backed Mr Trump.
Mr Doughty, who himself is based in Monroe, Louisiana, said legal teams continue to fight for the furious dad to be granted substantive phone call with the girl’s mother as he battles to bring the three relatives home.
The case follows that of Kilmar Ábrego García, who is currently in an El Salvador mega prison, notorious for housing gang members, after he was kicked out of the US following an “administrative error”. The US President’s team is said to have no basis to bring the dad back to the US, despite a court order backing Mr García in Maryland.
And the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Mr Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said he also does not “have the power to return him to the United States.”
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