Justice Accused
By 
A federal judge says that a two-year-old US citizen may have been deported to Honduras with her mother and 11-year-old sister without due process amid the Trump administration’s drive to ramp up deportations.
In a court filing, Judge Terry Doughty said that there was “strong suspicion” that the child – identified only as VML – was deported “with no meaningful process”.
The Louisiana-born child and her family members were apprehended during a routine appointment at a New Orleans immigration office on 22 April, according to documents.
A spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security said the mother wanted to take her children with her when she was sent to Honduras.
According to the court documents, the judge had sought to arrange a phone call with the girl’s mother, but was told by a government lawyer that it “would not be possible because she (and presumably VML) had just been released in Honduras.”
The immigration status of the girl’s mother, father and sister remains unclear. The two-year-old, however, is a US citizen.
“It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a US citizen,” said the judge.
A hearing has been scheduled for 19 May “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process”.
A friend of mine who is an immigration lawyer follows the Facebook page of the two-year-old’s lawyer. He writes: “Believe it or not, the deported 2 year old US citizen is only the second-worst aspect of this case. Fucking monsters.”
He then quotes the child’s lawyer:
“This is America. ICE deported my client and her 2 US citizen children this morning with no notice, no opportunity for counsel, no medicine or advice from the treating physicians for the 4 year old with stage 4 cancer. They hid my clients from me and then deported them so quickly as to deprive the Courts of any review. The horror truly outstrips our ability to process and respond to it. But I’ve been lucky to spend the last 48 hours arm in arm with some of the smartest, most powerful, and most committed attorneys and advocates I’ve had the privilege of meeting (though I wish it were under better circumstances). Feel free to share widely. I’ve been given permission from this devastated family to comment publicly. If you have any resources to get the word out and want comment, lemme know.”
This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Robert Cover’s Justice Accused, which chronicles the intellectual and moral struggles of judges and lawyers in the years immediately before the Civil War, as they confronted the fugitive slave laws in the wake of Dred Scott.
Immigration law in America is more than sufficiently cruel even when it is actually observed, but it is not cruel enough for monsters like Stephen Miller and the contemporary slave catchers who are “just following orders” at ICE. So even the minimal legal protections that immigrants — including US citizens — have under American law are now being ignored.