US deports 3 American children, including 1 with cancer
What's the story
The United States government has deported three children, aged two, four, and seven. At least one of the children, with initials VML, is a US citizen, and there is a legal dispute regarding her deportation.
The move was made in tandem with their undocumented immigrant mothers.
The Trump administration argues that one child was sent back willingly with her mother.
The National Immigration Project confirmed the deportations were done quickly by the New Orleans ICE Field Office on Friday morning.
Legal dispute
Controversy over deportation of American children
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has denounced such deportations as "illegal and inhumane."
One of the deported children, they reported, has a rare form of cancer and was sent back without necessary medication or medical consultations.
ACLU also alleged ICE agents barred detained families from communicating with their lawyers.
Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said ICE's actions are "horrifying and baffling."
Judicial inquiry
Judge questions legality of deportation
Federal District Judge Terry Doughty has set a hearing for May 16 to examine the deportation of a US citizen child.
The hearing comes after her mother was deported along with the two-year-old to Honduras.
The judge's court order said it was illegal to deport a US citizen, questioning the government's rationale for doing so.
Policy position
Trump administration's stance on deportations
President Trump's administration has been criticized by federal judges, rights groups, and Democrats for violating constitutional rights in their haste to deport migrants without appropriate hearings.
Amid the backlash, Trump defended his position on deportations in a social media post where he claimed undocumented migrants were causing unprecedented chaos in the United States of America.
Arguing against due judicial process for these deportations, he said it is "not possible to have trials for millions and millions of people."