Two-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Was Deported With ‘No Meaningful Due Process,’ Says Trump-Appointed Judge

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

A two-year-old U.S. citizen was deported to Honduras with her mother and sister without “meaningful due process,” according to a federal judge in Louisiana.

Identified in court filings as “V.M.L.,” the child was born in New Orleans, according to a birth certificate that was filed with the court. She was released in Honduras on Friday after her father tried to keep her in the U.S. The girl’s mom and sister were born in Honduras.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty scheduled a hearing on the matter on May 16 that will be “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”

Lawyers for the Trump administration claimed that the mother wanted to take the daughter with her to Honduras. In a filing, the government included a handwritten note in Spanish to that effect that was purportedly from the mother.

“The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” Doughty wrote. “But the Court doesn’t know that.”

Lawyers for the girl’s family had filed a petition seeking the girl’s release to the custody of her father.

The Trump administration has taken a heavy-handed approach to immigration enforcement efforts. Last month, it deported more than 250 immigrants – most of them Venezuelan – to El Salvador, where they are being incarcerated in a mega-prison without due process.

A 60 Minutes investigation determined that at least 75% of the men sent there have no criminal record. One of the deportees, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, has become the face of those deportations after his wife made a public plea for his return, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) visited El Salvador to meet with him.