Photo by Minnie Zhou on Unsplash

Imagine you have a young child, barely older than a toddler, who you've been told has Stage 4 cancer. But in the midst of such difficult news, you have hope, because your child is getting the treatment they need to survive. 

Just that situation alone seems almost insurmountable to imagine, but recently a family going through the horrible pain of child cancer was put in an even worse position when the U.S. government deported their 4-year-old U.S. citizen child to Honduras, reportedly without their medication.

In a deeply troubling development, three U.S. citizen children—ages 2, 4, and 7, from two different families—were deported from Louisiana to Honduras on April 25, 2025, alongside their undocumented mothers. This incident has sparked widespread outrage and raised serious questions about the treatment of American-born children in the immigration enforcement process.

In late April, the mixed-status families attended their routine check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Louisiana. Instead of the expected procedural meeting, the families were detained and swiftly deported. Legal advocates assert that the deportations were conducted without due process and without allowing the families to make proper custody arrangements for the U.S. born children. 

The deportation of U.S. citizen children raises significant legal issues, and the government's actions this week have broader implications for mixed-status families. U.S. law guarantees citizenship to children born on American soil, regardless of their parents' immigration status. Deporting these children, especially without due process, violates their constitutional rights. 

U.S. law guarantees due process for all American citizens under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Here's what that generally means:

• A citizen must be informed of the government's actions affecting them and the reasons for those actions.

• Before a citizen's rights, liberty, or property can be taken away, they are entitled to a fair hearing before an impartial judge or tribunal. 

• The government must follow fair and established procedures. It cannot act in a capricious or discriminatory manner, especially when restricting a citizen's freedom or access to services.

In short, citizens cannot be detained, removed, or deprived of basic rights without a transparent and legal process. The deportation of U.S.-born children without due process likely violates these constitutional protections.

In 2018 4.4 million U.S.-citizen children under the age of 18 lived with at least one undocumented parent. That number is likely much higher now. It is such a common situation that ICE has a Detained Parents Directive, to direct ICE agents on how to act in situations involving undocumented parents and minors or incapacitated adults that they are caring for. 

That document states that the government should consider “Whether the other parent is in the United States or if the other parent has given permission for the minor child(ren) to return to the country of removal with the noncitizen parent or legal guardian.”

In both of the cases of undocumented mothers who were deported with their U.S. children this week, the mothers were either not given any chance to speak to their children's fathers, or were given less than two minutes to speak to them - a time period that is not long enough to decide the future of your child's life. 

The psychological impact on children who experience family separation due to deportation is profound. Research has shown increased rates of anxiety, depression, and behavioral issues among these children, underscoring the need for policies that prioritize family unity and child welfare. 

There's no doubt about it, it has been a distressing season for the vulnerable in our communities. While we will continue to advocate for your families, we encourage allies of immigrant families to reach out to your elected officials and tell them you want the U.S. government to prioritize keeping families together in the United States, especially ones with children receiving cancer treatment. 

If you need assistance filing for an immigration petition, you can reach us at (757) 422-8472, or send us a message on our website. You can also schedule an appointment with one of our attorneys by clicking on this link.