April 26 (UPI) — A federal judge wants to straighten out the deportation to Honduras on Friday of a 2-year-old U.S. citizen with her mother and sister.
U.S. District Court of Western Louisiana Judge Terry Doughty scheduled a May 16 hearing at the Monroe (La.) Federal Courthouse after the child, who is identified as “VML,” was deported.
“The government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” Doughty wrote Friday in a memorandum order scheduling a hearing on the matter.
“The court doesn’t know that,” Doughty said. “Seeking the path of least resistance, the court called counsel for the government at 12:19 p.m. CDT, so that we could speak with VML’s mother and survey her consent and custodial rights.”
Doughty said he was aware the plane carrying VML and the child’s mother was above the “Gulf of America” when he placed the call and referred to the mother as an “illegal immigrant.”
An attorney for the federal government called at 1:06 p.m. and told Doughty it would be impossible to arrange a phone conversation because the mother and child already had been released into Honduras.
Doughty said prior federal court rulings affirm it is illegal and unconstitutional to deport a U.S. citizen, and the court on Thursday received a writ of habeas corpus and an emergency petition for a restraining order to halt the deportation of VML.
He scheduled the May 16 hearing “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.”
VML, her mother and her sister were detained on Tuesday while checking in with immigration officials in New Orleans as required by her mother’s participation in ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, NPR reported.
The child’s father and her mother’s partner dropped off the pair and her sister at the location for the ISAP process.
About an hour later, he learned they were detained and subject to deportation.
The child’s father contacted his attorney, who then called immigration officials to tell them VML is a U.S. citizen, ABC News reported.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer called the father at 7:30 p.m. that same day to tell him they were going to deport the child and her mother.
The father contacted another ICE officer afterward and was told he could try to pick up his daughter, but he also would be taken into custody.
An attorney of a family friend obtained temporary provisional custody of VML on Thursday and filed the writ of habeas corpus and emergency petition seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the deportation process.
Doughty, who was appointed to his judicial position by President Donald Trump, did not receive the petition in time to stop the girl’s deportation.