The Trump administration has disputed claims that three children, who are US citizens, were deported to Honduras alongside their mothers.
One of the youngsters is a four-year-old boy with Stage 4 cancer, who was sent without medication, a lawyer for the child’s family said.
Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said on Monday the children were placed on deportation flights at the request of their Honduran-born mothers.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the children were not deported but “went with their mothers”, adding that as citizens they could return if someone in the US “wants to assume them”.
Sky News’ partner network NBC News reported the families’ lawyers have disputed the Trump officials’ statements and claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ran out the clock on their attempts to help the families make arrangements for the children.
Lawyers for the women said they were arrested at routine check-ins at ICE offices, given virtually no opportunity to speak with their legal representatives or their family members and then deported within three days or less.
Assistant homeland security secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the agency was “confident in our process and procedures”, adding it had documentation confirming it was the parents’ choice for the children to go with them.
“We take our responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to ensure that children are safe and protected,” she said.
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Donald Trump has made mass deportations one of his main priorities since assuming office.
The crackdown has seen controversial deportations to El Salvador’s mega prison, a surge in immigration arrests and plans to revamp Guantanamo Bay to hold thousands of migrants.
On 15 March, the Trump administration deported more than 130 alleged Venezuelan gang members to the notorious CECOT supermax prison in El Salvador.
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Many of the migrants’ lawyers and family members say they were not members of the Tren de Aragua gang and had no chance to dispute the government’s assertion that they were.
There is a parallel legal dispute over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian citizen living in Maryland, who the Justice Department admits was mistakenly deported to his home country.
