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trump administration immigration agent More than 170 US citizens have been detained or arrested since the president took office, including nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancerAccording to a new analysis.
The government does not officially tally this figure, but a large number of American citizens have been caught up in the crackdown, a propublica Found in investigation.
In February, a 10 year old child who was undergoing treatment for brain cancer She was deported to Mexico along with her four American siblings and her two parents, who are undocumented.
Family That month they were stopped at an immigration checkpoint in Texas as they headed to Houston, where the 10-year-old’s specialist doctor lives. Previously, letters from his doctors and lawyers had allowed him to pass through such checkpoints, but immigration officials refused to let him through this time.
His mother told NBC News reported that the family was temporarily divided American detention systemAnd the sick young girl was laid on the cold floor under incandescent lights as she awaited deportation.
“The fear is terrible. I can’t almost explain it, but it’s something depressing, very difficult, something you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” she told Broadcaster.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol declined to speak on the specifics of the cases due to privacy concerns, but the agency has said the details of the case are “inaccurate” and that those ordered for expedited removal “will face consequences.”
In late April, another mixed-status family, including a sick US citizen child, was deported from the country.
On April 25, the New Orleans Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office removed at least two families and their minor children, three of whom are American children ages two, four and seven. According to the Louisiana ACLU,
According to civil rights groups, all of the families had been arrested less than a week earlier and were kept “incommunicado” from family members and outside legal counsel.
According to the ACLU, a four-year-old U.S. citizen from a family suffering from a rare type of metastatic cancer in the kidneys was deported without medication or the ability to consult his doctors, even though ICE was informed of the child’s medical needs.
Family Sued ICE in AugustThey alleged that the agency failed to follow its own procedures by denying families due process and holding them in undisclosed locations before removing them from the country, depriving their parents of adequate care for the children in the US.
Stephanie Alvarez-Jones, who is representing one of the families, said, “ICE has a policy for what they should do in these cases, and they certainly did not follow that policy.” told Louisiana Illuminator that month.
The government has not yet responded to the lawsuit, which was temporarily delayed due to the government shutdown.
Department of Homeland Security Said In April both mothers received final deportation orders and decided to voluntarily bring the children back with them to Honduras.
The agency continues to dispute reporting about the impact of immigration raids on American citizens as “fake news”.
“We have said it a million times: DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted and are not resulting in arrests of American citizens,” DHS wrote X in a statement on Thursday.
We do our due diligence. We know ahead of time who we are targeting. If and when we encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement are trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removal.
Immigration officers can legally detain US citizens if they initially have reason to suspect that they were in the country illegally, or if the Americans are accused of assaulting officers, or interfering with their operations.