Ice deported three US citizen children, including a boy with cancer, to Honduras, suit alleges
The lawsuit, which names attorney general Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem and various Ice officials as defendants, alleges Ice violated its own policies, and multiple federal laws, when officers secretly detained the families, denied access to counsel and swiftly deported them to Honduras, ignoring legal filings.
The claim, JLV v Acuna, filed by the National Immigration Project, says that three of the children – a four-year-old boy with stage 4 kidney cancer, his seven-year-old sister and a two-year-old girl – were included in the deportation sweep despite being American citizens.
The parents 'were never given a choice as to whether their children should be deported with them and were prohibited from contacting their counsel or having meaningful contact with their families to arrange for the care of their children', the lawsuit claims.
The mothers, pseudonymously named as Rosario and Julia, allege they wanted their children to remain in the US but the families were 'illegally deported without even a semblance of due process'.
One of the children, named as five-year-old Romeo, was diagnosed with a 'rare and aggressive form of kidney cancer' at age two and had been receiving treatment in the US.
'The failure to allow his mother to arrange for his care, in violation of Ice's own directive, and his unlawful deportation to Honduras interfered with his needed medical treatment,' the suit, filed in the US district court for the middle district of Louisiana on 31 July, states.
Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, said in a statement that 'Ice's actions in this case are not only unlawful, they are cruel and show a complete disregard for family values and the wellbeing of children'.
'No government agency should have the power to disappear families, ignore medical needs, and disregard its own policies and constitutional rights simply in order to achieve a goal of unfettered enforcement,' Shebaya added.
Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to NBC News that US children were not being 'deported' and denied that the parents were not given a choice regarding the care of their children before being sent to Honduras.
'Rather than separate their families, ICE asked the mothers if they wanted to be removed with their children or if they wanted ICE to place the children with someone safe the parent designates. The parents in this instance made the determination to take their children with them back to Honduras,' McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin added that when there is a health issue, 'ICE makes sure that treatment is available in the country to which the illegal alien is being removed. The implication that ICE would deny a child the medical care they need is flatly FALSE, and it is an insult to the men and women of federal law enforcement.'
The lawsuit comes amid claims and counterclaims about the number of people being swept up in the administration's immigration enforcement efforts, and the legality of those efforts under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
There have been more than 1,000 deportation flights to 62 countries since Donald Trump was sworn into office in January, according to the immigrant advocacy group Witness at the Border.
But that number of flights is becoming more difficult to track, the group warns, after air charter companies began requesting that their tail numbers be removed from public flight-tracking websites.
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Rosario, one of the mothers named in the lawsuit, told the legal group that the deportation experience had been 'scary and overwhelming'.
'After so many years in the United States, it has been devastating to be sent to Honduras,' she said. 'Life in Honduras is incredibly hard. I don't have the resources to care for my children the way they need.'
The other, Julia, said: 'This whole situation has been incredibly stressful.' She had arrived in the US in 2019 after fleeing Honduras and applied for asylum, but was forced to wait in Mexico under Trump's first-term 'remain in Mexico' policy. She returned to the US in 2021.
The lawsuit states that she was told to check in with Ice, bringing both of her daughters to her regular Ice check-ins in February 2021. But in April she went to an appointment and was soon told she would be deported along with her children.
'I was lied to,' she said. 'I never imagined they would send me and my children to Honduras. Returning to Honduras has meant leaving my husband behind, and that's been very hard. My daughters have also suffered a lot. We were deprived of the opportunity to be and make decisions as a family.'
Her attorney claims that an Ice officer told her to write on a piece of paper that her daughter would be going with her to Honduras. When she objected, an Ice officer allegedly told her that if she refused, her daughter would be sent to a foster home.
The Department of Homeland Security said in its statement to NBC News that it 'takes its responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to ensure that children are safe and protected'.
In a statement, Erin Hebert of Ware Immigration said Ice officials had 'betrayed their most basic duty: to safeguard the wellbeing of US citizens. These children and their families deserve justice and accountability for the flagrant and unapologetic violations of their rights.'
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