What to know about the U.S. citizen children removed with their mothers

Immigration advocacy groups said ICE officials in New Orleans removed members of two families, including three U.S. citizen children, from the United States on Friday.The big picture: The cases pile onto the legal and ethical questions that have surrounded the Trump administration's push to deport immigrants (and in this case, remove U.S. citizens) with little or no due process. What they're saying: Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Sunday interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that the mothers "who are illegally in this country" were deported, and the children "went with their mothers," an argument President Trump's border czar Tom Homan echoed.But a Trump-appointed judge said on Friday that while the government "contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her," the court "doesn't know that."U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty ordered a May 16 court hearing in the case of a 2-year-old deported to Honduras in "the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process."Context: As Doughty stressed, it is "illegal and unconstitutional" to deport a U.S. citizen.Here's what we know about the cases of U.S. citizen children removed from the country:Who were the children who were removed?The New Orleans ICE Field Office deported two mothers, one of whom is pregnant, and removed their minor children — U.S. citizens aged 2, 4 and 7 — early Friday morning, according to a statement from immigration and civil rights advocates at the National Immigration Project and other groups.One family was detained on April 22, and the other on April 24, per the statement, which alleged both families were held incommunicado."We should be gravely concerned that ICE has been given tacit approval to both detain and deport U.S. citizen children despite the availability and willingness of U.S.-based caregivers who, only because of ICE's own actions, cannot find or contact them," said the National Immigration Project's Gracie Willis, who is involved in the 2-year-old's case.One of the children, the group says, is a U.S. citizen suffering from a rare form of metastatic cancer, who was deported without medication or the ability to consult with their physicians.What's happening in court?The 2-year-old, who was identified in court filings as "V.M.L," accompanied her mother and 11-year-old sister to a routine check-in as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, or ISAP, where they were detained, according to a petition filed Thursday by her custodian, who her father appointed.According to court filings, the girls' father was only able to speak to their mother for around a minute over the phone before an ICE officer allegedly hung up the call as the father was giving her their attorneys' phone number.When an attorney representing the father spoke with an ICE official, the official allegedly refused to honor a request to release the child to her custodian and said if the father came to retrieve her, he would also be taken into custody.V.M.L's 11-year-old sister also had deportation orders, per a court filing. The other side: Attorneys representing the government alleged in a Friday filing that the custodian and V.M.L.'s father had not provided "proof of their identities" to ICE and argued the mother "made known that she does not want V.M.L. released from her custody."National Immigration Project executive director Sirine Shebaya said in a statement that ICE was "well aware before deporting the children that there were legal custodians and family members who were ready and willing to care for them" in the U.S., Axios' Bec Falconer reported.Shebaya stressed, "They did not offer either of the mothers any alternatives to having their children deported with them."Zoom out: The other mother and her 4-year-old and 7-year-old were also detained during an ICE check-in, multiple outlets reported."My clients were deported within 24 hours of being detained with no access to me," the family's attorney told CNN.What is the administration arguing?Rubio contended Sunday that if someone who is deported "says, I want to take my child ... with me, well, then what? You have two choices.""You can say yes, of course you can take your child, whether they're a citizen or not, because it's your child; or you can say yes, you can go, but your child must stay behind," he said. "And then your headlines would read: 'U.S. holding hostage 2-year-old, 4-year-old, 7-year-old, while mother deported."Zoom out: Border czar Tom Homan said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the "children aren't deported."He continued, "The mother chose to take the children with her — when you enter the country illegally, and you know you're here illegally, and you choose to have a U.S. citizen child, that's on you. That's not on this administration."Zoom in: Attorneys representing the administration pointed to a handwritten note from the 2-year-old's mother stating in Spanish that she would take her daughter to Honduras to back their claim that she wanted to retain custody of the child.Yes, but: The legal team representing the 2-year-old's custodian argued that while the note factually states that she "is bringing" her daughter, it was not "a statement of intent."Attorneys representing the family write, "Respondents' filing states that VML's mother has made known that she does not want VML released from custody. That is emphatically NOT what the note says."They continued, saying that "at minimum," the child "deserves for there to be a conversation between her caregivers to ensure that they agree on what is best for her."Go deeper: 3 ways Trump's immigration crackdown could hit U.S. citizens

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