Family of 2-year-old US citizen deported to Honduras drops lawsuit against Trump administration
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Lawyers for a 2-year-old U.S. citizen who was deported with her mother to Honduras confirmed on Tuesday that the family was dropping its lawsuit against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The girl -– one of three U.S.-born children who were deported alongside their Honduran-born mothers -– had been at the heart of one of the mounting legal battles playing out in the United States weighing if the Trump administration broke the law in implementing its new deportation policies.
'Given the traumatizing experiences the families have been through, they are taking a step back to have full discussions about all their options, the safety and well-being of their children, and the best ways to proceed so the harms they have suffered can be fully addressed,' said Gracie Willis, one of the family's lawyers.
The lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other allied groups, which said the deportations were a 'shocking — although increasingly common — abuse of power.'
Willis and the group of lawyers had argued that the families did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States. Willis said the family of the 2-year-old girl and their lawyers jointly decided to dismiss the case to give the family 'space and time to consider all the options that are available to them.'
A federal judge in Louisiana had raised questions about the girl's deportation, saying the government did not prove it had done so properly.
The Honduran-born mother — who is pregnant — was arrested in April on an outstanding deportation order along with the girl and her 11-year-old Honduran-born sister during a check-in appointment at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Orleans, lawyers said. The family lived in Baton Rouge.
Lawyers for the girl's father insisted he wanted the girl to remain with him in the U.S., while ICE said the mother had wanted the girl to be deported with her to Honduras.
In a court filing, lawyers for the father said ICE indicated that it was holding the girl in a bid to induce the father to turn himself in.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana had scheduled a hearing for the case later this week, saying it was 'in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
26 minutes ago
- USA Today
ICE raids meat production plant in Omaha, dozens detained
ICE raids meat production plant in Omaha, dozens detained WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - An immigration raid on Tuesday at a meat production plant in Omaha, Nebraska was the "largest worksite enforcement operation" in the state during the Trump presidency, the Homeland Security Department said. U.S. Congressman Don Bacon told local media 75-80 people were detained. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid happened at a plant of Glenn Valley Foods. The food packaging company said it was surprised by the raid and had followed the rules regarding immigration status. Chad Hartmann, president of Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, said the plant that was raided used E-Verify, a federal database used for checking employees' immigration status. He told Reuters that when he said this to a federal agent, the agent responded "the system is broken" and urged him to contact his local congressional representative. ICE officers have been intensifying efforts in recent weeks to deliver on U.S. President Donald Trump's promise of record-level deportations. The White House has demanded the agency sharply increase arrests of migrants in the U.S. illegally, sources have told Reuters. More: Curfew enacted for parts of LA; Newsom says Trump chose 'theatrics over public safety' Tensions boiled over in Los Angeles over the weekend when protesters took to the streets after ICE arrested migrants at Home Depot stores, a garment factory and a warehouse, according to migrant advocates. Local police in Omaha said they were informed by immigration officials about the raid in advance while the company said it got no notice about the operation ahead of time. Hartmann said federal agents had a warrant that said they had identified 107 people who they believed were using fraudulent documents. "This was the largest worksite enforcement operation in Nebraska under the Trump Administration," the Homeland Security Department said on X, adding no law enforcement official was hurt. ICE said a criminal investigation was ongoing into what immigration officials called a large-scale employment of immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally. More: In LA's Paramount neighborhood ICE raids hit hard. Here's why. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and federal law enforcement partners, executed a federal search warrant at Glenn Valley Foods, today, based on an ongoing criminal investigation into the large-scale employment of aliens without authorization to work in the United States," an ICE spokesperson told an ABC News affiliate. More than half of all meatpacking workers in the U.S. are immigrants, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank. Rights advocates, including the ACLU of Nebraska, condemned the raid. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Michael Perry)
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Musk regrets some of his Trump criticisms, says they 'went too far'
Elon Musk, the world's richest person and Donald Trump's former advisor, said Wednesday he regretted some of his recent criticisms of the US president, after the pair's public falling-out last week. "I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far," Musk wrote on his social media platform X. Musk's expression of regret came just days after Trump threatened the tech billionaire with "serious consequences" if he sought to punish Republicans who vote for a controversial spending bill. Their blistering break-up -- largely carried out on social media before a riveted public since Thursday last week -- was ignited by Musk's harsh criticism of Trump's so-called "big, beautiful" spending bill, which is currently before Congress. Some lawmakers who were against the bill had called on Musk -- one of the Republican Party's biggest financial backers in last year's presidential election -- to fund primary challenges against Republicans who voted for the legislation. "He'll have to pay very serious consequences if he does that," Trump, who also branded Musk "disrespectful," told NBC News on Saturday, without specifying what those consequences would be. Trump also said he had "no" desire to repair his relationship with the South African-born Tesla and SpaceX chief, and that he has "no intention of speaking to him." In his post on Wednesday, Musk did not specify which of his criticisms of Trump had gone "too far." - 'Wish him well' - The former allies had seemed to have cut ties amicably about two weeks ago, with Trump giving Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But their relationship cracked within days as Musk described the spending bill as an "abomination" that, if passed by Congress, could define Trump's second term in office. Trump hit back at Musk's comments in an Oval Office diatribe and from there the row detonated, leaving Washington stunned. "Look, Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore. I was surprised," Trump told reporters. Musk, who was Trump's biggest donor to his 2024 campaign, also raised the issue of the Republican's election win. "Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate," he posted, adding: "Such ingratitude." Trump later said on his Truth Social platform that cutting billions of dollars in subsidies and contracts to Musk's companies would be the "easiest way" to save the US government money. US media have put the value of the contracts at $18 billion. With real political and economic risks to their falling out, both appeared to inch back from the brink on Friday, with Trump telling reporters "I just wish him well," and Musk responding on X: "Likewise." Trump had spoken to NBC on Saturday after Musk deleted one of the explosive allegations he had made during their fallout, linking the president with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Musk had alleged that the Republican president is featured in unreleased government files on former associates of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while he faced sex trafficking charges. Trump was named in a trove of deposition and statements linked to Epstein that were unsealed by a New York judge in early 2024. The president has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case. "Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files," Musk posted on X. "That is the real reason they have not been made public." Musk did not reveal which files he was talking about and offered no evidence for his claim. He appeared to have deleted those tweets by Saturday morning. bur-sco/dhc
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How a Massachusetts town became a flashpoint for Trump's immigration crackdown
MILFORD, MASSACHUSETTS − Immigrants in this blue-collar town say they are living in constant fear of ICE raids that have rounded up 1,500 undocumented people throughout Massachusetts. Among those arrested was Marcelo Gomes da Silva an 11th grader at Milford High School, whose story has drawn widespread attention for the way it throws into stark relief immigration-enforcement tensions that exist all over the country. "There's been very high levels of anxiety in the community about immigration enforcement for many months," says Milford High School Principal Joshua Otlin. Gomes da Silva's family, who brought him to the United States from Brazil at the age of 7, are just some of the thousands of immigrants from Latin America whose arrival has reshaped Milford in the last two decades. And now their community is in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's aggressive deportation efforts. The fear is pervasive throughout the community, says Reggie Lima, a Brazilian American who on a recent day wore a Trump hat in Milford's Padaria Brasil Bakery. "Every day, it's on the back of everybody's mind. Nobody leaves home today without checking around, checking the windows, to see if ICE is outside," Lima says. Gomes Da Silva, 18, was arrested by ICE agents on May 31 when he was stopped on his way to volleyball practice. Federal officials said they targeted his father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, who they say is undocumented and has a history of reckless driving. The next day, Gomes da Silva's girlfriend and the other seniors at Milford High School graduated under a cloud of angst. Not only was Gomes da Silva − the drummer in the school band performing that day − absent but so were two of the graduating students and the families of many others. "A lot of people's parents were very scared to go to graduation, because there were a lot of false rumors saying that immigration could be around school property," said an 18-year-old Brazilian American who just graduated. USA TODAY is withholding the names of high school students interviewed for this story, because many members of the community expressed fear that they or their family would be subject to arrest or deportation. "It was a very difficult day, but it's definitely going to be memorable, because right after graduation, the first thing that all my friends did, we walked with our teachers, our friends, in our in caps and gowns − I was in my heels − all the way down to town hall protesting for Marcelo," she added. "I heard many stories of people who didn't cheer for their children," for fear of being exposed to immigration authorities, said Colleen Greco, the mother of a volleyball teammate of Gomes da Silva's. Gomes da Silva was released on June 5 after posting a $2,000 bond set by an immigration judge that afternoon. His arrest drew immediate backlash and condemnation from members of Congress. If Milford isn't Any Town USA, it is at least Any Town New England. The Brutalist concrete high school is surrounded by ball fields and a sea of parking. The strip malls are filled with chain restaurants, including three Dunkin' Donuts. The historic downtown is centered around a wood-frame town hall with a cupola-crowned clock tower. Its environs are filled with wood siding-clad houses behind small lawns, some protected by white-picket fences. While the mainline Protestant churches − Episcopal, Methodist, Congregationalist, and Unitarian − reflect the British roots of the town's original settlers, a nearby Catholic church demonstrates its more recent immigrant history: once catering to the Irish and Italians who dominated the population in the 20th Century, it now offers services in Spanish and Portuguese, as well as English. "When I grew up in Milford, Milford was pretty indistinguishable from other suburbs in this part of Massachusetts," said Otlin, who graduated in 1996 from the high school where he's now principal. Back then, he said, it was "almost exclusively white." "Today Milford is very, very different than it was," he continued. "Most of our students identify as something other than white, native-born, English-speaking Americans. Here at the high school, 45% of our families need a translator to communicate with the school." According to the U.S. Census, 30% of Milford's 30,000 residents are foreign-born. The Census undercounts immigrants, who may be afraid to respond to the survey, according to experts and the Census Bureau itself. A 2023 Census Bureau report found 19.8% of noncitizens located in administrative records could not be matched to an address in the 2020 Census, compared to 5.4% of among citizens. Still, Census data show a massive surge in immigration: Since 2000, both the Hispanic population and the foreign-born population have tripled in Milford. The name Massachusetts might evoke liberal coastal elites, like the ones at Harvard that Trump is currently attacking with every weapon he can find. But Milford is 30 miles and a world away from the Ivy League campus. Just one-third of adults in Milford have a bachelor's degree, compared to 80% in Cambridge. And while it's easier to find a New York Yankees fan than a Republican in Harvard Yard, 42% of Milford voters went for Trump last year. "Massachusetts has the 6th highest foreign-born proportion in the country at 18%," wrote Mark Melnik, a researcher at the UMass Donahue Institute, part of the University of Massachusetts, in an email to USA TODAY. "Milford at 30% is higher than Boston (27%)!" In the late 19th Century, the local economy revolved around extracting the town's trademark pink granite, which is found in buildings as far away as Paris. In the mid-20th Century, Archer Rubber was a major employer. Now, it's the health care and biotechnology industry around Greater Boston. But even the white-collar economy needs manual laborers to build and maintain the houses and office parks. "For most of our immigrant families, they're working in the skilled trades, mostly in the construction trades," Otlin said. And on Main Street, many of the stores feature signage in Spanish and Portuguese and sell products from Latin America such as soccer jerseys and plantain leaves. Many of the longtime residents enthusiastically embrace the new diversity. "They have the best meat markets," Greco said. And others express their region's trademark tolerance. "I think he's a folk hero, and I'm behind him," said Tom, a middle-aged white neighbor in a baseball hat, who was passing Gomes da Silva's house on June 6. Gomes da Silva's friends streamed in and out, but no one answered the door for a reporter. "I think it's no different than when Irish moved in, in the late 1800s, and Italians moved in in the early 1900s," Tom, a lifelong Milford resident of Irish ancestry who declined to give his last name, added. "Only the laws have changed, but we're all human." Even before Gomes da Silva was picked up, the already-pervasive fear of immigration authorities led one of Marcelo's volleyball teammates to be in his car that day. "The night before, I had asked Marcelo for a ride to practice because, ironically enough, my mother wasn't going to work that Saturday and she asked me if I could get a ride with a friend because she's too scared of going outside and driving me to practice," said the friend. Two days after Trump's inauguration, a rumor circulated in the Milford High School community that ICE would be arresting undocumented immigrants at school the following day. Students say most of the school population was absent the next day, including native-born citizens who feared their parents could be arrested picking them up or dropping them off. "There was no one in the school, no one," said a 17-year-old female classmate of Gomes da Silva's. "My parents are the ones who drive me to school, going back and forth, if they were to get stopped on the way there," said the 18-year-old recent graduate, who stayed home from school that day. "Also I was just concerned, if (ICE) were to ever follow me back home and see where I live, and just camp out there one day. I was just concerned for the safety of my parents." "Everywhere is kind of crazy: Chelsea, Framingham," said Lima, the Brazilian American Trump supporter, referring to two other Massachusetts towns with large Latino immigrant populations. "You see (ICE) every day. I saw them this morning." "Now people are afraid of driving vans with letters on the top, because they are targeting vans and commercial vehicles," Lima, a construction worker, said. Since so many of the manual laborers are immigrants, ICE will "see a van with the letters on the top, like roofers," and target it for immigration enforcement, he said. "People, including me, are very scared to leave their homes and are afraid of getting stopped doing nothing," said Andres, an Ecuadoan immigrant who works in roofing and lives in Milford, in Spanish. "You don't see people in the streets in the mornings," said Ingrid Fernandes, a Brazilian immigrant who owns Padaria Brasil Bakery. "It's hurt a lot. Almost 80% of my customers aren't coming for two weeks." "My parents have been afraid to leave the house," said the female classmate of Gomes da Silva's, who is also Brazilian American. "Me and my sister have been doing the shopping because we're citizens." Others say their families are having groceries delivered. They liken the lifestyle to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees at Oliveira's Market, a grocery store selling Brazilian foods in downtown Milford, say business has been unusually slow in recent weeks, since the raids began, because their customers are afraid to go out. "ICE was looking initially for immigrant criminals, now they are targeting everyone," said an Oliveira's employee, who declined to give his name. Speaking in Portuguese via a translator, he added that he knows people who have been detained and deported. When a white reporter and photographer arrived at Oliveira's Market, a man on his way in from the parking lot turned around and left. At a variety store on Main Street, the elderly Hispanic woman behind the counter was so terrified by journalists asking questions that she began to cry. Nearly everyone in town had heard about Marcelo's case and the overwhelming sentiment was sympathetic to him. "It's a very sad story for everybody," Fernandes said. His six-day detention featured what his lawyer called "horrendous" conditions, including sleeping on a cement floor with no pillow and only a thin metallic blanket. Meals, he said at a press conference, often consisted of nothing but crackers. "He seemed thin," said Andrew Mainini, Gomes da Silva's volleyball coach, who saw him the night he was released. "As someone who works out with him and sees him daily, he looked thinner than just six days earlier. And it was pretty noticeable, in his face, specifically." ICE's media affairs office told USA TODAY Gomes da Silva was provided meals, including sandwiches. 'He was provided bedding, given access to hygiene including showers, and had access to his lawyer," said Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin in an emailed statement. ICE defends Gomes da Silva's arrest, noting that he wasn't the target of the operation but that anyone in the country illegally is subject to deportation. According to ICE, just over half of the immigrants recently arrested in Massachusetts have criminal convictions in the United States or abroad. 'ICE officers engaged in a targeted immigration enforcement operation of a known public safety threat and illegal alien, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira," McLaughlin said. "Local authorities notified ICE that this illegal alien has a habit of reckless driving at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour through residential areas endangering Massachusetts residents." "Officers identified the target's vehicle, and initiated a vehicle stop with the intention of apprehending Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira," McLaughlin continued. "Upon conducting the vehicle stop, officers arrested Marcelo Gomes-Da Silva, an illegally present, 18-year-old Brazilian alien and the son of the intended target. While ICE officers never intended to apprehend Gomes-DaSilva, he was found to be in the United States illegally and subject to removal proceedings, so officers made the arrest." In 2011, Milford resident Maureen Maloney suffered a horrific tragedy when her 23-year-old son was killed by a drunk driver who was in the country illegally. The driver also had a criminal record for assaulting a police officer in 2008. Maloney became an advocate for removing undocumented immigrants who commit crimes. She went on to campaign for Trump in 2016 and to serve for four years on the Republican state committee. In Maloney's view, while what happened to Marcelo is unfortunate "collateral damage," the ICE raids are beneficial because of the criminals they have caught. "If these raids save only one life or prevent only one more child from being sexually assaulted, it was worth it," Maloney said. "No matter how bad it was for Marcelo, and I'm sure it was traumatic for him, he'd probably rather that than having lost a sibling or been sexually abused as a young child." Even some Brazilian Americans agree. "It's needed because we've been having a lot of criminals all over the place," Lima said. "They (racially) profile. They look at you, you look Spanish, you speak with an accent, yeah: 'where's your papers?'" Lima noted. "But it's complicated," he added. "By doing that, they've caught like murderers, people who committed crimes in Brazil." Maloney argues that responsibility for the large number of non-criminals picked up in the ICE raids lies with Healey, the state legislature and a 2017 state court decision limiting immigration-enforcement cooperation with ICE. "As far as what occurred with Marcelo, this is a direct result of Massachusetts' sanctuary policies and Gov. Healey refusing to cooperate with ICE, because if ICE could apprehend these criminal aliens in a more controlled environment, we wouldn't be having nonviolent, noncriminal aliens being picked up as collateral damage," she said. Gov. Healey disputed those claims in a statement sent to USA TODAY by her office. 'Massachusetts law enforcement regularly partners with federal authorities to keep our communities safe," she said. "Our Department of Correction already has an agreement to notify ICE when someone in their custody is scheduled to be released. But instead of focusing on removing criminals, the Trump Administration and ICE are arresting people with no criminal records who live here, work here, and have families here. ICE's actions are creating considerable fear in our communities and making us all less safe.' The high school community responded to its shock and upset over Gomes da Silva's arrest by quickly organizing in opposition to his detention and possible deportation. On June 2, the first day of classes after Gomes da Silva's arrest, hundreds of students staged a walkout and a rally in protest. "The students were exemplary," Otlin said. "It was a very emotionally intense experience for the students and everyone who was there to bear witness to it. I've worked in public schools for 25 years, this is my 15th year as an administrator. I've never seen anything like it. Students sobbing and chanting and praying together. Students coming up to the microphone and speaking from their hear to the press and doing so in incredibly powerful ways." The next day, the boys' volleyball team's playoff volleyball game brought hundreds of students, teachers, and community members in white t-shirts with "Free Marcelo" written on them. "People came to support the volleyball team and people came to be together," Otlin said. "This was and remains a traumatic event for hundreds of young people and parents and families in our community, and I think people desperately wanted to come together and be together." The team lost, however. Coach Mainini said the volleyball team's goal is to support by Gomes da Silva by "maintaining the community." "Any time he's with the team, any time he's active, he's not going to be thinking of the challenges ahead of him," Mainini said. "And that's one of the best things we can offer him." Meanwhile, other Milford High School students and recent alumni still have to contend with the omnipresent threat of immigration enforcement descending upon their family. "My parents have had the conversation with me about moving to Brazil, like what would happen in case something were to ever happen," said Gomes da Silva's female classmate. "Me personally, I don't want to go to Brazil, because I've never been there. I don't know what it's like. This is what I know. This is the only thing I know. I've never really traveled outside the country." "And like, I don't want to leave my parents, I wouldn't want to leave my parents, but I'd stay for my last year of high school, to finish high school with my sister. I wouldn't want to leave my mom and dad, but I wouldn't want to leave my home, to leave the United States. And it's a very scary and weird conversation to have with them." "Sadly, that's the reality we have to live: I have to think about whether I'm going to come home and my parents won't be there," the recent graduate said. Contributing: John Walker, Kevin Theodoru, USA TODAY NETWORK. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 11th grader's ICE arrest spotlights a town reshaped by immigration
