Cnn
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A federal judge said on Friday that an American 2 -year -old citizen had been expelled with his mother in Honduras. The Trump administration says that his mother asked officials to take her with her, according to the documents.
US district judge Terry Doughty said the child, identified in court documents like VML, was released in Honduras on Friday afternoon alongside his mother, who, according to the judge, is an undocumented immigrant.
Family lawyers filed an emergency request on Thursday, asking the court to order the child’s “immediate release” by American immigration and the application of customs, claiming that they “had no statutory or constitutional authority” to hold it as an American citizen, according to the petition.
The child was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, January 4, 2023, indicates the petition. The child was placed in police custody Tuesday morning with his mother and 11 -year -old sister, while the mother “attended a routine recording” with the Federal Agency, according to the petition.
“In the interest of dissipating our strong suspicion that the government has just exported an American citizen without significant process,” said Judge Doughty in the order, an audience is scheduled for May 16 in Monroe, Louisiana.
The judge added: “It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, to hold for expulsion or to recommend the expulsion of an American citizen”, citing an expulsion case of 2012.
The federal government, Doughty, said: “maintains that everything is fine because the mother wants the child to be expelled with her … But the court does not know.”
The judicial documents deposited by the government opposing the petition argued that the mother of the child, “made known the officials of the ice that she wanted to retain custody of VML” in a handwritten note and asked the child to accompany him in Honduras.
Honduras, immigration forces and American customs, family lawyers and the US Ministry of Justice did not immediately make comments.
In a statement to CNN, a senior official of the Ministry of Internal Security said that the mother “had made the decision to take the child with them to Honduras. It is common for parents to want to be removed with their children.”
“We ask the parents if they want to be removed with their children or if the ice will place the children with someone that the parent designates. In this case, the parent said they wanted to be withdrawn with the children,” said the manager.
The DHS said the manager, assumes his “responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal police to ensure that children are safe and protected”.
About an hour after the mother and two daughters went to the agency’s office in New Orleans, the father received a call from the agency saying: “The family had all been taken to the immigration office and gave it an address,” said the petition.
When the father arrived at the address, which led him to the New Orleans ice field office, the police gave him a newspaper saying that the mother was “under their care” and said that they could not give him more information, but the mother of VML’S “would soon call him,” said the petition.
An ice officer was then in contact with the father’s lawyer, informing him that the expulsion of the mother “was certain and he thought they were all in a hotel” but would not disclose the location, according to the petition, and he could not facilitate a legal appeal between the lawyer and the mother of the child.
On the same day, the father was again contacted by an ice officer who said that the mother was under their care and informed the father that the mother and the daughters were going to be expelled, shown court documents. “He heard his daughters cry and his partner crying. He reminded VML’s mother that their daughter was an American citizen and could not be expelled,” the documents said.
Before the father could finish providing the mother with their lawyers, he heard the ice officer “take the phone from her and hang the call”, according to the petition.
The father then moved to give the provisional guard of his two daughters to his sister-in-law, an American citizen who lives in Baton Rouge, and the mandate was notarial in Louisiana, according to documents.
The petition alleys that Ice refused to honor the father’s request to release VML to the sister-in-law, declaring “it was not necessary” because the child was already with his mother, and informed the father that he would be placed in police custody if he was trying to recover it.
The federal government said that in court documents that the mother wrote in a letter she “would bring my daughter … with me to Honduras”.
The government said that “the man claiming to be VML’s father” had not presented himself or identified in the ice despite the requests to do so, according to court documents.
“VML is not at risk of irreparable damage if it is maintained with its legitimate guardian mother,” said the government.
