Deported 2-Year-Old May Not Have Had ‘Meaningful’ Legal Process: Judge

A Trump-appointed federal judge has raised concerns that a 2-year-old U.S. citizen may have been deported to Honduras “with no meaningful process.”

The toddler, who was born in Louisiana, court documents say, was deported along with her Honduran mother and sister on Friday after her mother wrote a letter asking for the 2-year-old girl to be deported too, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said.

Newsweek reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) via email for comment on Friday night.

The Context

Since his January 20 inauguration, President Donald Trump has implemented sweeping change, mainly through executive orders, and has prioritized immigration as a key pillar within the administration.

Trump last month utilized the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime law that grants the commander in chief authority to detain or deport noncitizens. The implementation was originally blocked in federal court and sparked a contentious legal back-and-forth.

Trump’s implementation of the act was originally upheld by the Supreme Court, but the justices also ruled that immigrants must first be afforded the right to legally challenge any deportation efforts.

Deportation flight — A U.S. Air Force flight can be seen carrying migrants deported by the U.S. government, arriving on January 31 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. (Photo by Jorge Salvador Cabrera/Getty Images)

What To Know

In a court order on Friday, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, says the court does not know for a fact that the 2-year-old’s mother wrote a letter requesting the child be deported with her.

In court documents, the child is referred to as VML. Politico was first to report the story.

According to court documents reviewed by Newsweek, VML was taken into custody alongside her mother while checking in for her mother’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program as ordered by ICE, a lawyer representing VML’s “next friend” Trish Mack said.

The document says VML is in fact a U.S. citizen, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on January 4, 2023. VML’s father took the child, VML’s mother and an 11-year-old daughter of the mother to the appointment and was later told that all three were being deported to Honduras.

Newsweek also reached out to ICE via email for comment on Friday night.

Doughty said he called the government’s lawyers at 12:19 p.m. CST and he was informed that VML, her mother and sister were en route to Honduras and could not be reached for a survey of custodial rights and consent, as the plane was over “the Gulf of America.”

Government lawyers also told the court that VML and her mother were released in Honduras.

“In the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a
U.S. citizen with no meaningful process,” Doughty said, it was ordered that a follow-up be scheduled next month.

The Trump administration is also embroiled in a contentious legal battle regarding deportation involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadoran national that was deported back to his home country due to an “administrative error” after an immigration court ruled he could not be sent there over fears of retaliation from MS-13 gang rivals.

The Trump administration has accused Abrego Garcia of being in MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Abrego Garcia, his family and lawyer deny these accusations.

In 2021, his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, accused him of domestic violence and filed paperwork to obtain a restraining order, but says they have since reconciled.

In an exclusive statement to Newsweek, Vasquez Sura said, in part: “Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through the situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling.”