A federal judge in Louisiana expressed concern Friday against his father's wish, when the Trump administration deported a two-year-old US citizen to Honduras “without a meaningful process.”
In a short order from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Judge Terry A. Doughty wondered why the administration sent a child to his father.
“The government argues that this is all okay because the mother wants the child to be deported with her,” writes Judge Doughty, a conservative Trump appointee. “But the courts don't know that.”
Claiming US citizens “illegal, unconstitutional, and unconstitutional,” Judge Doughty set up a hearing on May 16 to explore his strong suspicions, saying “the government has just deported US citizens without a meaningful process.”
The VML case previously reported by Politico is the latest challenge to the legality of some aspects of President Trump's aggressive deportation efforts.
The administration has already been cut off by six federal judges in courts across the country to remove Venezuelan immigrants who have been accused of being gang members in El Salvador under wartime laws that were rarely called out. He also caused a fuss by accidentally deporting Maryland man Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador and refusing to bring him back.
The two-year-old accompanied her mother, Jenny Carolina Lopez Villera and her sister Valeria on the appointment of immigrants in New Orleans on Tuesday, when she was detained by US immigrants and customs enforcement officials, court documents said.
Lopez Villera had planned a quick removal from the country on Friday. And a Justice Department lawyer filed Dauty with the judge, claiming she “informed ice officials that she wanted to retain custody of VML.”
However, in a petition filed Thursday by child administrator Trish Mack, her father claimed that she and her children could be heard crying when they spoke briefly with Lopez Villera. The father reminded her, the petition said, “Their daughters were American citizens and could not be deported.”
The father, who was not identified by the name of the petition, attempted to give Ms. Lopez Villera the attorney's phone number, but officials allegedly shortened the call.
VML's detention “is unfounded by law and violates her basic due process rights,” the petition said. “She is seeking urgent action from this court and asks the court to order her custodian Trish Mac to release her instantly.
Judge Doughty said on his order that he had tried to investigate what had happened by calling Lopez Villela on Friday in the afternoon on Friday, “investigating her consent and control.”
The judge expressed concern that the plane carrying the mother and her daughter was already “over the Gulf of America.” His suspicions have been confirmed, he wrote, that a Justice Department lawyer told him at 1:06pm that day that Lopez Villera and perhaps her children had been “just released in Honduras.”
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
