HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) 鈥 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have in recent days deported the Cuban-born mother of a 1-year-old girl 鈥 separating them indefinitely 鈥 and three children ages 2, 4 and 7 who are U.S. citizens along with their Honduran-born mothers, their lawyers said Saturday.
The three cases raise questions about who is being deported, and why, and come amid over whether President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has gone too far and too quickly at the expense of fundamental rights.
Lawyers in the cases described how the women 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 three days or less.
The American Civil Liberties Union, 春色直播 Immigration Project and several other allied groups said in a statement that the way ICE deported children who are U.S. citizens and their mothers is a 鈥渟hocking 鈥 although increasingly common 鈥 abuse of power.鈥
Gracie Willis of the 春色直播 Immigration Project said the mothers, at the very least, did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States.
The 4-year-old 鈥 who is suffering from a rare form of cancer 鈥 and the 7-year-old were deported to Honduras within a day of being arrested with their mother, Willis said.
In the case involving the 2-year-old, a federal judge in Louisiana raised questions about the deportation of the girl, saying the government had not proven that it had done so properly.
Lawyers for the girl's father insisted he wanted the girl to remain with him in the U.S., while ICE contended the mother had wanted the girl to be deported with her to Honduras, claims that weren't fully vetted by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana.
Doughty in a Friday order scheduled a hearing on May 16 鈥渋n the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process," he wrote.
The Honduran-born mother 鈥 who is pregnant 鈥 was arrested Tuesday on an outstanding deportation order along with the 2-year-old girl and her 11-year-old Honduran-born sister during a check-in appointment at an ICE office in New Orleans, lawyers said. The family lived in Baton Rouge.
Doughty called government lawyers on Friday to speak to the woman while she was in the air on a deportation plane, only to be called back less than an hour later and told that a conversation was impossible because she 鈥渉ad just been released in Honduras.鈥
In a Thursday court filing, lawyers for the father said ICE indicated that it was holding the 2-year-old girl in a bid to induce the father to turn himself in. His lawyers did not describe his immigration status, but said he has legally delegated the custody of his daughters to his sister-in-law, a U.S. citizen who also lives in Baton Rouge.
Cuban-born woman is deported, leaving behind child and husband
In Florida, meanwhile, a Cuban-born woman who is the mother of a 1-year-old girl and the wife of a U.S. citizen was detained at a scheduled check-in appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa, her lawyer said Saturday.
Heidy S谩nchez was held without any communication and flown to Cuba two days later. She is still breastfeeding her daughter, who suffers from seizures, her lawyer, Claudia Ca帽izares, said.
Ca帽izares said she tried to file paperwork with ICE to contest the deportation Thursday morning but ICE refused to accept it, saying S谩nchez was already gone, although Ca帽izares said she doesn't think that was true.
Ca帽izares said she told ICE that she was planning to reopen S谩nchez' case to help her remain in the U.S. legally, but ICE told her that S谩nchez can pursue the case while she's in Cuba.
鈥淚 think they鈥檙e following orders that they need to remove a certain amount of people by day and they don鈥檛 care, honestly,鈥 Ca帽izares said.
S谩nchez is not a criminal and has a strong case on humanitarian grounds for allowing her to stay in the U.S., Ca帽izares said, but ICE isn't taking that into consideration when it has to meet what the lawyer said were deportation benchmarks.
S谩nchez had an outstanding deportation order stemming from a missed hearing in 2019, for which she was detained for nine months, Ca帽izares said. Cuba apparently refused to accept Sanchez back at the time, so Sanchez was released in 2020 and ordered to maintain a regular schedule of check-ins with ICE, Ca帽izares said.
___
Follow Marc Levy on X at: .
