The Honduran illegal immigrant deportee opted to take her 2-year-old U.S. citizen child back home with her.
A lawsuit filed against the Trump administration alleging it deported an illegal immigrant and her 2-year-old U.S. citizen child to Honduras in April without due process is being dropped, lawyers for the child’s family confirmed on May 13.
The toddler, identified in court filings only as V.M.L., and her 11-year-old Honduran-born sister were kept with their mother, Jenny Carolina Lopez-Villela, who was arrested during a check-in appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New Orleans.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Immigration Project filed a lawsuit in April challenging their deportations, claiming the toddler was held “incommunicado,” with ICE “refusing or failing to respond to multiple attempts by attorneys and family members to contact them.”
They further argued that the family members did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States.
The federal government has denied those claims.
Gracie Willis, one of the family’s lawyers, said on May 13 that they have decided to dismiss the case to allow for “space and time to consider all the options that are available to them.”
“Given the traumatizing experiences the families have been through, they are taking a step back to have full discussions about all their options, the safety and well-being of their children, and the best ways to proceed so the harms they have suffered can be fully addressed,” Willis said.
DHS welcomed the family’s decision to drop what it described as “baseless lawfare” against ICE and the department.
“The ACLU dropped its lawsuit on the false claims that DHS deported a U.S. citizen,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“The truth is, and has always been, that the mother—who was in the country illegally—chose to bring her 2-year-old with her to Honduras when she was removed.
“The narrative that DHS is deporting American children is false and irresponsible.”
According to DHS, Lopez-Villela illegally entered the United States three times: in September 2019, March 2021, and August 2021.
“She and her older daughter were deemed inadmissible to the United States the first time she entered the country and both her and her daughter were given final orders of removal in March 2020,” the DHS statement reads.
