Attorneys dispute Trump officials’ claim that deported moms willingly took their U.S. citizen children

One mother who was about to be deported was allowed less than two minutes on the phone with her husband to figure out what would become of her 2-year-old U.S. citizen son.

Another mother wasn’t allowed to speak with attorneys or family members before she was deported, accompanied by her U.S.-born children, even though Immigration and Customs Enforcement knew one of them had Stage 4 cancer.

Attorneys for the mothers and their children who were sent to Honduras are blasting Trump administration officials, saying the deportations of three U.S. citizen children over the weekend, including the 4-year-old boy who left without access to his cancer medicines, are illegal. They’re pushing back against statements that the families chose for the children to go with their mothers.

On Monday, Trump administration border “czar” Tom Homan said the three U.S. citizen children, all under 10 years old, were placed on deportation flights at their mothers’ request. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the children weren’t deported but “went with their mothers,” adding that as citizens they could come back if there’s someone in the United States who “wants to assume them.”

But attorneys have provided details they say show that the mothers and their families had little to no chance to make arrangements for their children. They said ICE ran out the clock on their attempts to help the families make arrangements for the children.

Such removals “are happening with a lot of speed,” said Sirine Shebaya, executive director of National Immigration Project.

“This is very much a situation that really requires an investigation and some kind of accountability,” Shebaya said, “because there’s no mystery about what was happening.”

Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email that the agency is “confident in our process and procedures,” adding that it has documentation that confirms it was the parents’ choice for the children to go with them.

“We take our responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to ensure that children are safe and protected,” she said.

In an interview, Mich P. González, the attorney for the mother deported with her 2-year-old child, said the woman was told to take her children to an immigration check-in, which was moved up from the original date.

Gracie Willis, an attorney with the National Immigration Project, who represents the 2-year-old, said in an interview on MSNBC that “at every single point ICE denied anybody the ability to know where this family was, denied everybody the ability to contact with them and communicate with them.” She said the child’s father “barely had any opportunity to speak with the mother about what was best for the child before an ICE officer hung up the phone as he tried to give her the number for an attorney.” 

ICE has provided a one-page note that it says was written by the mother, who is pregnant, and shows she gave her consent for the 2-year-old to be deported. The note is written in Spanish, with redactions in the top and bottom right corners. The note says, “I will take my daughter [her name] with me to Honduras,” with the date and time and the mother’s name. 

But González, a co-founder of Sanctuary of the South, an immigration and LGBTQ civil rights cooperative, said ICE is “mischaracterizing that this was her wish, that she willfully consented to this.”

“The statement does not show that this was her desire. It doesn’t show that she’s consenting to this. She was just writing down a fact. And after having spoken with her, it’s clear that she was felt forced to do this. She felt absolutely forced to write this,” González said.

‘She did not sign anything’

Attorneys for the mother of the child with cancer said she, the boy and his sister, 7, who’s also a U.S. citizen, were flown to Honduras on Friday morning. Attorneys say that the mother wasn’t able to speak to family members or her lawyers before they were sent out of the country and that she didn’t willingly take her children with her.

The American Civil Liberties Union said ICE was told in advance about the child’s medical needs.

“She did not sign anything, did not write anything and did not consent to anything expressly. The entire time she was trying very aggressively to speak to her lawyer,” González said. “As a matter of fact, she was trying to get ahold of a phone to try to call her family and her attorney. But she wasn’t being allowed.”

“She did not sign anything. She did not consent to any of this. She very much wanted to make other plans for her two U.S. citizen children, especially because her 4-year-old was actively getting cancer treatment here in the United States,” González said. “Not only did they deport this family against the mother’s wishes; they were deported without the child’s medication.”

Some legal advocates warn there are other cases in which mothers’ deportations could put U.S. citizen children at risk.

In Florida, an attorney for America Perez Ramirez, 52, said the Department of Homeland Security sent a notice telling her client to check in at an ICE field office and bring tickets for a direct flight to Mexico for her and her U.S. citizen 11-year-old daughter.

Her daughter, Yoselin, has a life-threatening rare genetic disorder known as Maple Syrup Urine Disease, in which the body can’t break down certain amino acids. Perez Ramirez lost two other children to the disease. The girl’s University of Florida doctor wrote a letter on her behalf, saying: “Yoselin needs to be in United States with her mother to manage her MSUD. … She would not survive without the care she is currently receiving.” 

Perez Ramirez is in the middle of a labor trafficking case. She came to the United States on an H2-B visa, recruited by an employer who ended up exploiting her and confiscating her visa, her attorney said. She has been able to get four previous stays of deportation under previous administrations that acknowledged the girl’s serious medical condition, but this time, “we couldn’t even file a stay because they said, ‘We’ve given you four of them already, and we’re not giving any more.’”

The deportation would have forced her to take her daughter with her because there is no one else to make sure she gets medical care.

Bridgette M. Bennett, who represents Perez Ramirez, said: “She was supposed to leave on Saturday, but the only thing that kept her here was the fact that her daughter’s passport is expired.” Bennett is trying to keep her from being deported, arguing there’s no one else to care for the girl with her condition.