The Trump administration is coming under scrutiny for deporting several U.S. citizen children along with their foreign-born parents.
Trump officials have defended the move, saying the minors were not deported, rather the parents have elected to take them along rather than be separated from their children.
But attorneys for the families involved in such cases say their clients were given little notice and forced to make split-second decisions about what to do with children born in the United States.
Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), has been in contact with attorneys for several families, including a Honduran woman with two U.S. citizen children, including a 4-year-old with stage 4 cancer.
“At no time did the mother offer any consent. At no time did the mother sign anything. Also, the mother was not given the opportunity to speak with legal counsel, even though the lawyer was in the same building at the time,” Magaziner told The Hill.
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And then there’s the case of two Mexican parents living in Texas who were deported along with five of their six children after being stopped at a border checkpoint.
The family was en route to Houston for emergency treatment for their 10-year-old, U.S. citizen daughter who had recently had a brain tumor removed.
The Hernandez family, using a pseudonym to protect their privacy, pleaded while in custody for staff to look at documentation from the hospital requesting permission to travel.
Instead, they spent the night in custody before being taken to a bridge and turned over to Mexican authorities in an area rife with kidnappings. The family has since gone into hiding in rural Mexico.
The Hill: Mass deportation effort sweeps up U.S. citizen children with deported parents
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