A federal judge in Louisiana expressed strong suspicion Friday that the U.S. government deported a 2-year-old American citizen to Honduras "with no meaningful process," raising serious constitutional and due process concerns.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty issued an order scheduling a hearing for May 16 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deportation of the toddler, identified in court documents as V.M.L., who was removed from the United States alongside her undocumented mother and older sister earlier in the day.
"The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her," Judge Doughty wrote. "But the Court doesn't know that."
The family was initially detained Tuesday morning during a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the agency's Intensive Supervision Appearance Program in New Orleans. According to court filings, the mother had been released under the program in 2021 and was complying with scheduled appearances when agents seized her and her daughters.
V.M.L.'s father, a U.S. resident, contacted ICE to assert custody rights and informed officials that his daughter was a U.S. citizen, born in Baton Rouge in January 2023. His attorney also sought to have the child placed with a family friend, who had provisional custody and filed an emergency motion to halt the deportation, arguing the girl faced "irreparable harm."
Court documents reveal that when the father inquired about retrieving his daughter, an ICE officer warned he could be taken into custody himself. Attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition and a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent the deportation, but the government removed the family before the court could rule.
During Friday's proceedings, Doughty recounted that the court attempted to reach the mother by phone while she was in transit but was informed that she and her children had already landed in Honduras. He noted that the mother had signed a letter in Spanish stating her intent to take her daughter with her to Honduras, but emphasized the letter's timing - it was signed Thursday evening while the family was still detained.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, representing the father and the custodian, condemned the deportation. The deportation raises "serious due process concerns," the ACLU said in a statement, adding that V.M.L. and two other U.S. citizen children in a separate case had been removed under similarly "deeply troubling circumstances."
Government lawyers defended the action, arguing that because the mother maintained legal custody of her daughter and consented to the relocation, V.M.L.'s constitutional rights were not violated. "V.M.L. is not prohibited from entering the United States," Department of Justice attorneys wrote in a filing, asserting that she remains eligible to return.
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE responded to requests for comment.
