Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the "parent made the decision to take the child with them to Honduras," adding that "it is common that parents want to be removed with their children.”
A federal judge on Friday sounded the alarm after lawyers alleged the Trump administration deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen without “meaningful process.” The toddler’s father filed a petition for release after the child was deported alongside her sister and mother, who was determined to be in the country illegally, to Honduras.
But Judge Doughty said he doesn’t know that to be true. As the plane was in flight over the Gulf of America he tried to arrange a call with the mother to figure out what was going on. By the time the government got an answer back to the judge, the woman — and presumably the child — had already been released in Honduras.