Latest news with #JennyCarolinaLopezVillela
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ACLU ends ‘baseless' lawsuit over deportation of a Honduran mother and her children
May 10 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union has dropped its federal lawsuit accusing the Department of Homeland Security of illegally deporting a U.S. child and her Honduran mother and sister. "The ACLU dropped its lawsuit on the false claims that DHS deported a U.S. citizen," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Saturday in a news release. The news release referred to the federal lawsuit as "baseless lawfare" against the DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "The truth is, and always has been, that the mother - who was in the country illegally - chose to bring her 2-year-old with her to Honduras when she was removed," McLaughlin said. "The narrative that DHS is deporting American children is false and irresponsible." The ACLU filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on behalf of Trish Mack, whom the filing referred to as "best friend of V.M.L." "V.M.L." are the initials used to identify the 2-year-old child who was born in the United States but whose mother, whom DHS identified as Jenny Carolina Lopez-Villela, chose to take with her to Honduras. Lopez-Villela illegally entered the United States with V.M.L.'s older sister three times in two years, according to the DHS. She entered in September 2019 with her oldest daughter but was "deemed inadmissible" and was given final orders of removal in March 2020. Lopez-Villela also illegally entered the United States in March 2021 and again in August 2021, along with her oldest daughter. She was detained by ICE in April when arriving with her daughters for a routine immigration check-in at a New Orleans facility. When told she would be deported to Honduras, Lopez-Villela chose to bring V.M.L. with her instead of leaving her with another person to remain in the United States. "Parents who are here illegally can take control of their departure," DHS said of the U.S.-born children of parents who face deportation. They can use the CBP Home app to self-deport, along with their children, and "return the legal, right way and come back to live the American dream," the DHS news release says. The CBP Home app is free and available for all mobile devices. The ACLU did not respond to a request for comment made Saturday afternoon, but in an April 25th news release accused the New Orleans ICE field office of deporting three "U.S. citizen children." Two of those children are Lopez-Villela's daughters, only one of whom is a U.S. citizen, according to DHS. The other child is a 7-year-old who also left when the child's pregnant mother was deported after being arrested in New Orleans in April. That child's citizenship status was neither confirmed nor denied by the DHS, but the ACLU says the child is afflicted with a rare form of cancer. ICE deported the mother who took her child with her despite ICE having been notified of the child's medical needs and the mother's pregnancy, according to the ACLU. The ACLU said the deportations were done "under deeply disturbing circumstances that raise serious due process concerns." "The families had lived in the United States for years and had deep ties to their communities," the ACLU said. They were denied access to their attorneys, which the ACLU says deprived them of legal counsel, and ICE deported the mothers and their children on an early morning flight from Louisiana.
Time of India
27-04-2025
- Health
- Time of India
American dilemma: Undocumented immigrant parents are deported. Should their US-born children with cancer go with them?
TOI correspondent from Washington: America's liberal conscience is being shaken this weekend by the deportation on Friday of three US-born citizens, children of immigrant parents, including a two-year old baby and four-year old child with stage-4 metastatic cancer. US authorities maintained that the children's mothers, who were undocumented, were being deported to their home country Honduras, and they chose to take the children with them. But a judge, a Trump-appointee, found the process questionable and said there appeared to be no meaningful process to their deportation. He called the move "illegal and unconstitutional." Lawyers for the families said the two mothers were taken into custody while attending a routine check-in in New Orleans as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which allows individuals to remain in their communities while undergoing immigration proceedings. In one case, Jenny Carolina Lopez Villela, mother of the two-year old girl and her older sister, is said to have given a handwritten note in Spanish choosing to take them with her even as the children's father, whose immigration status is unclear, was on the phone with her to remind her their younger daughter was a US citizen and not liable for deportation. He was cut off when he was about to give her contact information for lawyers. In the other case, a 4-year-old child with Stage 4 cancer was deported without medication or means to contact doctors, the family's lawyer said. It was the second such case prosecuted by the Trump administration after a 10-year-old US citizen with brain cancer was deported to Mexico on February 4 while en route to a medical appointment, due to her parents' undocumented status. The family was traveling from Rio Grande City, Texas, to Houston for an emergency medical check-up for the girl, who had undergone brain surgery in 2024 to remove a tumor, when they were detained at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoint in South Texas. The Trump administration maintains that it does not deport US citizens, but they may choose to accompany family members being deported, and in the case of minor children, family members being deported may take the children with them as part of a policy not to separate families. The MAGA perspective: Trump didn't deport two-year old American citizen. US provided free transportation to a young child whose custodial mother wanted her daughter to come with her. But civil liberties lawyers and activists say the families are being rushed out of the country without due process. In the New Orleans case US District Judge Terry Doughty appeared to agree with them. The two mothers and their children were reportedly prevented from communicating fully with their families trying to arrange legal representation, driven to the airport, and put on a flight to Honduras, irking even a Trump-appointee judge. 'The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the Court doesn't know that,' Judge Doughty said, noting that he was unable to verify the mother's consent for the child to accompany her before the deportation. The case highlighted growing disquiet in the country over the Trump administration's crackdown on not just undocumented immigrants, but even green card and visa holders, including international students, not to speak of bearing down on judges, two of whom have been arrested for purportedly obstructing the deportation of illegal immigrants. In some cases, homeland security officials in plainclothes have been arresting immigrants without serving warrants, with supporters of such action citing security concerns. New Trump administration policies include reversing Biden-era restrictions on arrests in sensitive locations like hospitals and invoking the Alien Enemies Act for expedited removals.
