HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have in recent days deported the Cuban-born mother of a 1-year-old girl — separating them indefinitely — and three children ages 2, 4 and 7 who are US citizens along with their Honduran-born mothers, their lawyers said Saturday.
The three cases raise questions about who is being deported, and why, and come amid a battle in federal courts over whether President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone too far and too quickly at the expense of fundamental rights.
Lawyers in the cases described how the women were arrested at routine check-ins at ICE offices, given virtually no opportunity to speak with lawyers or their family members and then deported within three days or less.
The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other allied groups said in a statement that the way ICE deported children who are US citizens and their mothers is a “shocking — although increasingly common — abuse of power.”
Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said the mothers, at the very least, did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States.
“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,” Willis said in an interview. “They didn’t gave them a choice, that these mothers only had the option to take their children with them despite loving caregivers being available in the United States to keep them here.”
The 4-year-old — who is suffering from a rare form of cancer — and the 7-year-old were deported to Honduras within a day of being arrested with their mother, Willis said.
In the case involving the 2-year-old, a federal judge in Louisiana raised questions about the deportation of the girl, saying the government did not prove it had done so properly.
Lawyers for the girl’s father insisted he wanted the girl to remain with him in the US, while ICE contended the mother had wanted the girl to be deported with her to Honduras, claims that weren’t fully vetted by US District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana.
Doughty in a Friday order scheduled a hearing on May 16 “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process,” he wrote.
The Honduran-born mother — who is pregnant — was arrested Tuesday on an outstanding deportation order along with the 2-year-old girl and her 11-year-old Honduran-born sister during a check-in appointment at an ICE office in New Orleans, lawyers said. The family lived in Baton Rouge.
Doughty called government lawyers on Friday to speak to the woman while she was in the air on a deportation plane, only to be called back less than an hour later and told that a conversation was impossible because she “had just been released in Honduras.”
In a Thursday court filing, lawyers for the father said ICE indicated that it was holding the 2-year-old girl in a bid to induce the father to turn himself in. His lawyers didn’t describe his immigration status, but said he has legally delegated the custody of his daughters to his sister-in-law, a US citizen who also lives in Baton Rouge.
Cuban-born woman is deported, leaving behind child and husband
In Florida, meanwhile, a Cuban-born woman who is the mother of a 1-year-old girl and the wife of a US citizen was detained at a scheduled check-in appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa, her lawyer said Saturday.
Heidy Sánchez was held without any communication and flown to Cuba two days later. She is still breastfeeding her daughter, who suffers from seizures, her lawyer, Claudia Cañizares, said.
Cañizares said she tried to file paperwork with ICE to contest the deportation Thursday morning but ICE refused to accept it, saying Sánchez was already gone, although Cañizares said she doesn’t think that was true.
Cañizares said she told ICE that she was planning to reopen Sánchez’s case to help her remain in the US legally, but ICE told her that Sánchez can pursue the case while she’s in Cuba.
“I think they’re following orders that they need to remove a certain amount of people by day and they don’t care, honestly,” Cañizares said.
Sánchez is not a criminal and has a strong case on humanitarian grounds for allowing her to stay in the US, Cañizares said, but ICE isn’t taking that into consideration when it has to meet what the lawyer said were deportation benchmarks.
Sánchez had an outstanding deportation order stemming from a missed hearing in 2019, for which she was detained for nine months, Cañizares said. Cuba apparently refused to accept Sanchez back at the time, so Sanchez was released in 2020 and ordered to maintain a regular schedule of check-ins with ICE, Cañizares said.
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ICE deports immigrant mother of an infant and 3 children who are US citizens, lawyers say
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ICE deports immigrant mother of an infant and 3 children who are US citizens, lawyers say
- Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said the mothers, at the very least, did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States
Pam Bondi clashes with Democrats in defense of Trump over Epstein files
- Repeatedly shouts at Democrats during a combative hearing in which she postured herself as the Republican president’s chief protector
- US Attorney General aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners
WASHINGTON: Attorney General Pam Bondi launched into a passionate defense of Donald Trump on Wednesday as she tried to turn the page from relentless criticism of the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, repeatedly shouting at Democrats during a combative hearing in which she postured herself as the Republican president’s chief protector.
Besieged by questions over Epstein and accusations of a weaponized Justice Department, Bondi aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners, praised Trump over the performance of the stock market and openly aligned herself as in sync with a president whom she painted as a victim of past impeachments and investigations.
“You sit here and you attack the president and I’m not going to have it,” Bondi told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. “I am not going to put up with it.”
With victims of Epstein seated behind her in the hearing room, Bondi forcefully defended the department’s handling of the files related to the well-connected financier, an issue that has dogged her tenure. She accused Democrats of using the Epstein files to distract from Trump’s successes, even though it was Republicans who initiated the furor over the records and Bondi herself fanned the flames by distributing binders to conservative influencers at the White House last year.
The hearing quickly devolved into a partisan brawl, with Bondi repeatedly lobbing insults at Democrats while insisting she was not “going to get in the gutter” with them. In one particularly fiery exchange, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland accused Bondi of refusing to answer his questions, prompting the attorney general to call the top Democrat on the committee a “washed-up loser lawyer — not even a lawyer.”
Aiming to help Bondi amid an onslaught of Democratic criticism, Republicans tried to keep the focus on bread-and-butter law enforcement issues like violent crime and illegal immigration. Bondi, for her part, repeatedly deflected questions from Democrats, responding instead with attacks seemingly gleaned from news headlines as she sought to cast them as disinterested in violence in their districts. Democrats grew exasperated as Bondi declined time and again to directly answer.
“This is pathetic. This is pathetic,” said Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat who tried to ask Bondi about different Trump administration officials revealed to have had ties to Epstein. “I am not asking trick questions here. The American people have a right to know the answers to this.”
Bondi has struggled to move past the backlash over the Epstein files since she handed out the binders to a group of social media influencers in February 2025. The binders included no new revelations about Epstein, leading to even more calls from Trump’s base for the files to be released.
In her opening remarks, Bondi told Epstein victims to come forward to law enforcement with any information about their abuse and said she was “deeply sorry” for what they had suffered. She told the survivors that “any accusation of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated.”
But she refused when pressed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, to turn and face the Epstein victims in the audience and apologize for what Trump’s Justice Department has “put them through.” She accused the Democrat of “theatrics.”
Bondi’s appearance on Capitol Hill came a year into her tumultuous tenure, which has amplified concerns that the Justice Department is using its law enforcement powers to target political foes of the president. Just a day earlier, the department sought to secure charges against Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging military service members not to follow “illegal orders.” But in an extraordinary rebuke of prosecutors, a grand jury in Washington refused to return an indictment.
Turning aside criticism that the Justice Department under her watch has become politicized, Bondi touted the department’s work to reduce violent crime and said she was determined to restore the department to its core missions after what she described as “years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization.”
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan praised Bondi for undoing actions under President Joe Biden’s Justice Department that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives — including Trump, who was charged in two federal criminal cases that were abandoned after his 2024 election victory.
“What a difference a year makes,” Jordan said. “Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions — upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys and keeping Americans safe.”
Democrats, meanwhile, excoriated Bondi over haphazard redactions in the Epstein files that exposed intimate details about victims and included nude photographs. A review by The Associated Press and other news organizations has found countless examples of sloppy, inconsistent or nonexistent redactions that have revealed sensitive private information.
“You’re siding with the perpetrators and you’re ignoring the victims,” Raskin told Bondi in his opening statement. “That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change the course. You’re running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who broke with his party to advance the legislation that forced the released of the Epstein files, also took Bondi to task for the release of victims’ personal information, telling her, “Literally the worst thing you could do to survivors, you did.”
Bondi told Massie that he was only focused on the files because Trump is mentioned in them, calling him a “hypocrite” with “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Department officials have said they took pains to protect survivors, but errors were inevitable given the volume of the materials and the speed at which the department had to release them. Bondi told lawmakers that the Justice Department had taken down files when it was made aware that they included victims’ information and said staff had tried to do their “very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation” mandating the release of the files.
After raising the expectations of conservatives with promises of transparency last year, the Justice Department said in July that it had concluded a review and determined that no Epstein “client list” existed and there was no reason to make additional files public. That set off a furor that prompted Congress to pass legislation demanding that the Justice Department release the files.
The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represented a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote when Bondi suggested in a Fox News interview last year that it was sitting on her desk for review. Bondi later said she was referring to the Epstein files in total, not a specific client list.
Besieged by questions over Epstein and accusations of a weaponized Justice Department, Bondi aggressively pivoted in an extraordinary speech in which she mocked her Democratic questioners, praised Trump over the performance of the stock market and openly aligned herself as in sync with a president whom she painted as a victim of past impeachments and investigations.
“You sit here and you attack the president and I’m not going to have it,” Bondi told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. “I am not going to put up with it.”
With victims of Epstein seated behind her in the hearing room, Bondi forcefully defended the department’s handling of the files related to the well-connected financier, an issue that has dogged her tenure. She accused Democrats of using the Epstein files to distract from Trump’s successes, even though it was Republicans who initiated the furor over the records and Bondi herself fanned the flames by distributing binders to conservative influencers at the White House last year.
The hearing quickly devolved into a partisan brawl, with Bondi repeatedly lobbing insults at Democrats while insisting she was not “going to get in the gutter” with them. In one particularly fiery exchange, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland accused Bondi of refusing to answer his questions, prompting the attorney general to call the top Democrat on the committee a “washed-up loser lawyer — not even a lawyer.”
Aiming to help Bondi amid an onslaught of Democratic criticism, Republicans tried to keep the focus on bread-and-butter law enforcement issues like violent crime and illegal immigration. Bondi, for her part, repeatedly deflected questions from Democrats, responding instead with attacks seemingly gleaned from news headlines as she sought to cast them as disinterested in violence in their districts. Democrats grew exasperated as Bondi declined time and again to directly answer.
“This is pathetic. This is pathetic,” said Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat who tried to ask Bondi about different Trump administration officials revealed to have had ties to Epstein. “I am not asking trick questions here. The American people have a right to know the answers to this.”
Bondi has struggled to move past the backlash over the Epstein files since she handed out the binders to a group of social media influencers in February 2025. The binders included no new revelations about Epstein, leading to even more calls from Trump’s base for the files to be released.
In her opening remarks, Bondi told Epstein victims to come forward to law enforcement with any information about their abuse and said she was “deeply sorry” for what they had suffered. She told the survivors that “any accusation of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated.”
But she refused when pressed by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, to turn and face the Epstein victims in the audience and apologize for what Trump’s Justice Department has “put them through.” She accused the Democrat of “theatrics.”
Bondi’s appearance on Capitol Hill came a year into her tumultuous tenure, which has amplified concerns that the Justice Department is using its law enforcement powers to target political foes of the president. Just a day earlier, the department sought to secure charges against Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging military service members not to follow “illegal orders.” But in an extraordinary rebuke of prosecutors, a grand jury in Washington refused to return an indictment.
Turning aside criticism that the Justice Department under her watch has become politicized, Bondi touted the department’s work to reduce violent crime and said she was determined to restore the department to its core missions after what she described as “years of bloated bureaucracy and political weaponization.”
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan praised Bondi for undoing actions under President Joe Biden’s Justice Department that Republicans say unfairly targeted conservatives — including Trump, who was charged in two federal criminal cases that were abandoned after his 2024 election victory.
“What a difference a year makes,” Jordan said. “Under Attorney General Bondi, the DOJ has returned to its core missions — upholding the rule of law, going after the bad guys and keeping Americans safe.”
Democrats, meanwhile, excoriated Bondi over haphazard redactions in the Epstein files that exposed intimate details about victims and included nude photographs. A review by The Associated Press and other news organizations has found countless examples of sloppy, inconsistent or nonexistent redactions that have revealed sensitive private information.
“You’re siding with the perpetrators and you’re ignoring the victims,” Raskin told Bondi in his opening statement. “That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change the course. You’re running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who broke with his party to advance the legislation that forced the released of the Epstein files, also took Bondi to task for the release of victims’ personal information, telling her, “Literally the worst thing you could do to survivors, you did.”
Bondi told Massie that he was only focused on the files because Trump is mentioned in them, calling him a “hypocrite” with “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Department officials have said they took pains to protect survivors, but errors were inevitable given the volume of the materials and the speed at which the department had to release them. Bondi told lawmakers that the Justice Department had taken down files when it was made aware that they included victims’ information and said staff had tried to do their “very best in the time frame allotted by the legislation” mandating the release of the files.
After raising the expectations of conservatives with promises of transparency last year, the Justice Department said in July that it had concluded a review and determined that no Epstein “client list” existed and there was no reason to make additional files public. That set off a furor that prompted Congress to pass legislation demanding that the Justice Department release the files.
The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represented a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote when Bondi suggested in a Fox News interview last year that it was sitting on her desk for review. Bondi later said she was referring to the Epstein files in total, not a specific client list.
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