• ICE has recently deported mothers along with their U.S.-born children, raising questions about legal processes.
• A U.S. citizen two-year-old girl and a four-year-old with cancer were among those deported.
• Lawyers argue the deportations were hasty and without adequate legal representation.
• The ACLU described the treatment as “a shocking abuse of power.”
• Federal courts have raised concerns over deportation procedures being followed.

Recently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has deported a Cuban-born mother of a one-year-old girl, separating them indefinitely, and several U.S. citizen children aged 2, 4, and 7 alongside their respective Honduran-born mothers. These actions have ignited discussions about the legality and morality of deportation practices under current U.S. immigration policy, especially given the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s stringent immigration crackdown, which many critics assert infringes upon fundamental rights and due process, according to latimes, scmp, huffpost, and indiatimes.

The deportations occurred after the mothers were arrested at routine check-ins with ICE, where they reportedly had minimal opportunity to consult with legal counsel or communicate with family members. A federal judge in Louisiana expressed serious concerns regarding the deportation of a two-year-old U.S. citizen, questioning whether the government had adhered to proper legal procedures, according to latimes and huffpost.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Immigration Project condemned these actions, stating that the deportations represent a "shocking -- although increasingly common -- abuse of power." Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project highlighted the lack of options offered to the mothers, noting that they were forced to make impossible decisions regarding their children’s future without any guidance or alternatives, according to scmp, huffpost, and indiatimes.

One particularly troubling case involved a four-year-old child with metastatic cancer, deported without undergoing necessary medical treatment, prompting calls for immediate humanitarian intervention. The family unit has been significantly disrupted, raising wider questions about ICE's practices and priorities amidst a standardized goal of removing certain numbers of immigrants daily, despite individual circumstances, according to huffpost and indiatimes.

Heidy Sánchez, a Cuban-born mother in Florida, was also deported quickly after a scheduled check-in, without the opportunity to contest her removal due to ongoing health challenges affecting her one-year-old daughter. Sánchez's attorney criticized ICE's refusal to consider humanitarian circumstances or legal avenues for her client, asserting that the agency imposed strict deportation benchmarks at the expense of individual human rights, according to latimes, scmp, huffpost, and indiatimes.