🚨 American Children in Exile: How ICE is Deporting U.S. Citizens Without Due Process
The shocking truth about how American babies and children are being sent to countries they've never known
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🇺🇸 The U.S. government is supposed to protect American citizens, but recently some children who are American citizens were sent to 🇭🇳 Honduras with their mothers. One of these kids is only 4 years old and is very sick with cancer 🎗️. They were sent away without their medicine 💊. This happened because their mothers weren't born in America and were being deported 🚫. Government officials say the mothers chose to take their kids with them, but lawyers argue that the mothers weren't given any other options ❌. A judge is going to have a special meeting 👩⚖️ to determine if the government broke its own rules by sending American children away from their own country.
🗝️ Takeaways
🔎 Three U.S. citizen children (ages 2, 4, and 7) were taken to Honduras with their undocumented mothers, who were deported by ICE in April 2025.
🏥 One of the deported children is a 4-year-old with metastatic cancer who was removed without medication or the ability to consult with doctors.
⚖️ A federal judge has expressed "strong suspicion" that the government deported a U.S. citizen without a meaningful process and scheduled a hearing.
👨👩👧 Lawyers dispute the administration's claim that mothers "chose" to take their children, saying no real alternatives were offered and U.S.-based caregivers were available.
📈 This is part of a larger pattern, with Northwestern University research suggesting up to 1.5% of all deportees may be American citizens.
🧠 The psychological impact on border communities is severe, with families living in fear and children unsure if their parents will be home after school.
The Scary State of America as ICE Deports American Citizen Children Without Due Process
¿Qué ha pasado con nuestra América? The land that once claimed to welcome the tired and poor now expels its own children.
In the borderlands of Southern Arizona, where the mesquite trees twist against the horizon and Border Patrol vehicles kick up dust on unpaved roads, we've grown accustomed to the machinery of deportation.
But even those of us who have witnessed decades of injustice at the border are stunned by what's unfolding in the spring of 2025:
American citizen children—babies and toddlers born on U.S. soil—are being deported alongside their undocumented parents with frightening speed and a flagrant disregard for constitutional rights.
American Children in Exile: The Facts
Let's be crystal clear about what's happening: In late April 2025, three U.S. citizen children—ages 2, 4, and 7—were taken to Honduras with their undocumented mothers who were deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in New Orleans. This isn't speculation or political spin. These are facts confirmed by multiple sources, including CNN, the Washington Post, and the American Civil Liberties Union.1
Most horrifying of all, one of these children, just 4 years old, was receiving treatment for metastatic cancer and was removed from the country without medication or the ability to consult with the doctors who were treating their life-threatening condition.
Let that sink in. A gravely ill American child was torn from their medical care and sent to a country with vastly fewer medical resources, putting their life at immediate risk.
These families weren't apprehended crossing the border or in dramatic workplace raids. They were detained during routine check-ins with ICE as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). This program typically allows immigrants to remain in their communities while undergoing immigration proceedings.2
They walked into government offices, following the rules, and were essentially ambushed.
Constitutional Rights Crumpled Like Paper
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that no person shall be deprived of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Yet these children—American citizens by birth and by law—were given no process whatsoever.
According to the ACLU and the National Immigration Project, ICE held these families "incommunicado," refusing to respond to multiple attempts by attorneys and family members to contact them.3 In one case, a mother was granted less than one minute on the phone before the call was abruptly terminated when her spouse tried to provide legal counsel's contact information.
Even a federal judge in Louisiana, Terry Doughty (a Trump appointee, it's worth noting), has expressed "strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process" and has scheduled a hearing for May 16 to investigate.4 When a Trump-appointed judge is alarmed by the Trump administration's immigration practices, we've crossed into truly dangerous territory.
The Administration's Hollow Defense
The Trump administration's explanation for these deportations is both legally inaccurate and morally bankrupt. Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have insisted that the administration did not "deport" American children. Instead, they claim the mothers chose to bring their children with them during deportation.5
"They weren't deported. We don't deport U.S. citizens," claimed Homan in a statement that manages to be technically true while fundamentally dishonest. "Their mothers made that decision, not the United States government."
But lawyers for the families present a very different picture. Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said, "We have no idea what ICE was telling them, and in this case, what has come to light is that ICE didn't give them another alternative. They didn't give them a choice.”6
Moreover, according to advocacy groups, U.S.-based caregivers were available and willing to care for these children, but ICE never considered this option.7 And in the case of the child with cancer, ICE was notified in advance about their urgent medical needs, but proceeded with the removal anyway.
This isn't about parental choice. It's about a government agency forcing an impossible decision: abandon your child in a foreign system or take them away from their country, their rights, and in at least one case, their life-saving medical care.
A Dark Pattern Emerges
These cases in New Orleans are not isolated incidents. They're part of a broader pattern of immigration enforcement that increasingly captures U.S. citizens in its dragnet, often with catastrophic consequences.
Since President Trump's January 2025 inauguration, reports of U.S. citizens being detained or deported have multiplied. In Florida, a U.S.-born man named Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was arrested and held on an ICE detainer despite being a natural-born citizen.8 In Chicago, Julio Noriega, a 54-year-old man born and raised in that city, was held by ICE for more than 10 hours after simply buying a slice of pizza.9
Political science professor Jacqueline Stevens of Northwestern University, who founded the school's Deportation Research Clinic, has been tracking the deportation of U.S. citizens since 2007. Through years of research, she estimates that up to 1.5 percent of deportees are American citizens.10
With the Trump administration ramping up deportations to unprecedented levels—targeting 1,200 to 1,500 deportations per day—the number of citizens caught in this maw will inevitably rise.
The Cruel Efficiency of the Deportation Machine
What we're witnessing isn't just cruelty; it's cruelty executed with terrifying efficiency. The current administration has directed ICE to dramatically increase deportations, enlisting personnel from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to meet these aggressive targets.11
To quickly increase detention capacity, the administration has even begun sending migrants to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba—a place synonymous with indefinite detention and the absence of due process.12
This massive reallocation of federal resources toward deportation has created a system that prioritizes speed over accuracy, quotas over constitutional rights. When faced with the choice between taking time to verify citizenship claims or meeting daily deportation targets, ICE consistently chooses the latter.
The Impact on Communities
The harm of these policies extends far beyond the individuals directly affected. When U.S. citizen children are deported, entire communities suffer.
Research from the American Immigration Council shows that immigration enforcement creates profound instability for families. When a parent is detained or deported, families lose 40 to 90 percent of their income within six months.13 Housing becomes precarious, with Latino households in counties with aggressive immigration enforcement showing substantially higher foreclosure rates.
In schools, the impact is equally devastating. After mass immigration raids, student absences spike. Teachers report declining academic performance and decreased parental involvement. The educational gaps between white students and Latino students widen in communities where deportations are common.
For those of us in border communities, the psychological toll is immeasurable. Children go to school wondering if their parents will be home when they return. U.S. citizens carry their passports to grocery stores, fearful of being detained if they cannot immediately prove their status. The constitutional promise of equal protection under the law feels increasingly hollow.
A History of Exclusion Repeating Itself
No somos nuevos aquí. Indigenous peoples have lived in what is now the American Southwest for millennia, long before borders were drawn through our ancestral lands. My own Chicanx identity exists in the liminal space created by these artificial boundaries—too Mexican for America, too American for Mexico.
When I see American children being deported to Honduras, I can't help but think of Operation Wetback in the 1950s, when up to 1.3 million Mexican Americans were deported, many of them U.S. citizens. Or of the Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, when an estimated 60% of those "repatriated" to Mexico were actually American citizens, mostly children.
History is repeating itself, but with a disturbing new efficiency powered by databases, biometrics, and the vast resources of the Department of Homeland Security.
Resistance in the Face of Injustice
Despite this bleak landscape, resistance flourishes. Immigration advocates across the country are filing emergency legal actions to halt these unconstitutional deportations. Civil rights groups are documenting cases and bringing them to public attention. Communities are organizing rapid response networks to support families threatened with separation.
In Arizona, organizations like the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project provide legal representation to detained immigrants. No More Deaths/No Más Muertes continues to leave water in the desert for migrants and document Border Patrol abuses. These acts of solidarity persist even as the government increasingly criminalizes humanitarian aid.
What You Can Do
The deportation of American children should outrage every person who believes in constitutional rights, regardless of political affiliation. Here are concrete ways to take action:
Support legal advocacy organizations like the ACLU, the National Immigration Project, and local immigrant rights groups that are challenging these deportations in court.
Contact your representatives in Congress and demand oversight hearings on the deportation of U.S. citizens.
Know your rights and help others know theirs. Organizations like the Immigrant Legal Resource Center provide free "know your rights" materials in multiple languages.
Document and report. If you witness or experience rights violations by immigration authorities, document everything and report it to advocacy organizations and, when safe, to the media.
Build community support networks. Work with local organizations to create safe spaces and support systems for families at risk of separation.
Hope persists in the most unlikely places. Federal judges, even those appointed by Trump, are showing alarm at these constitutional violations. Public outrage grows with each new report of American children sent into exile. The machinery of deportation is massive, but it is not invincible.
La lucha sigue. The struggle continues. And in the borderlands, we know something about endurance.
To stay informed about these issues and support independent journalism from the borderlands, please consider supporting Three Sonorans Substack. Your subscription helps ensure that these stories—the ones often overlooked by national media—continue to be told.
Leave a comment below with your thoughts. What aspects of this issue are you most concerned about? What forms of resistance have you witnessed in your own community?
In solidarity,
Three Sonorans
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Sources
CNN, "3 children who are US citizens — including one with cancer — deported with their mothers to Honduras, lawyers and advocacy groups say" (April 2025): https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/27/us/children-us-citizens-deported-honduras/index.html
Washington Post, "U.S. citizen children deported with moms, raising due process concerns" (April 2025): https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/26/us-citizen-children-deported-ice/
ACLU, "ICE Deports 3 U.S. Citizen Children Held Incommunicado Prior to the Deportation" (April 2025): https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ice-deports-3-u-s-citizen-children-held-incommunicado-prior-to-the-deportation
PBS News, "ICE deported 3 children who are U.S. citizens, their families' lawyers say" (April 2025): https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ice-deported-3-children-who-are-u-s-citizens-their-families-lawyers-say
National Immigration Project statement, cited in ACLU press release (April 2025): https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ice-deports-3-u-s-citizen-children-held-incommunicado-prior-to-the-deportation
As reported by PBS News, quoting Judge Terry Doughty's order (April 2025): https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ice-deported-3-children-who-are-u-s-citizens-their-families-lawyers-say
Washington Post, "Trump officials deny U.S. citizen children were 'deported' to Honduras" (April 2025): https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/27/trump-deportation-citizens-children/
PBS News, quoting Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project (April 2025): https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ice-deported-3-children-who-are-u-s-citizens-their-families-lawyers-say
National Immigration Project statement, cited in ACLU press release (April 2025): https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/ice-deports-3-u-s-citizen-children-held-incommunicado-prior-to-the-deportation
CNN, "American citizen Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez detained under ICE hold in Florida is released" (April 2025): https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/us/lopez-gomez-citizen-detained-ice-florida/index.html
Washington Post, "U.S. citizens are getting caught in Trump's immigration crackdown" (April 2025): https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/05/us-citizens-deported-immigration/
Washington Post, quoting Professor Jacqueline Stevens (April 2025): https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/05/us-citizens-deported-immigration/
Ibid
Ibid
American Immigration Council, "U.S. Citizen Children Impacted by Immigration Enforcement" (October 2024): https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/us-citizen-children-impacted-immigration-enforcement
I feel obliged to call it as I see it: << One of the deported children is a 4-year-old with metastatic cancer who was removed without medication or the ability to consult with doctors. >>
Apologies, but in my book that translates into a single word in simple English: murder. [One might also use "execution" and other such terms, of course.]
Moron Are Governing America, as Michael Cohen has observed. The horror is that the so-called "religious" people among them extol a man whose conduct shows not a trace of morality or even human decency!