The Trump administration deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen on Friday

Hours later, a conservative judge warned of his "strong suspicion" that the administration "just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process."

Over the course of the past three days, the Trump administration took a two-year-old U.S. citizen into custody, along with her mother and sister, and deported the child to Honduras with little to no individualized process, prompting sharp concern from a conservative federal judge on Friday.

The Justice Department does not appear to dispute the underlying facts, given its position in a filing faxed to the court about 3:45 a.m. CT Friday in response to a habeas petition filed on behalf of the child, referred to as V.M.L., on Thursday evening.

Instead, the Justice Department’s entire argument was simply that, once in custody and told she was going to be deported, V.M.L.’s mother, Jenny Carolina Lopez Villela, wrote a note stating that she would bring her two-year-old daughter with her to Honduras.

As the habeas petition made clear, however, many federal officials knew that both V.M.L.’s father, Adiel Mendez Sagastume, and provisional custodian, Trish Mack, were desperately trying to get in touch with Jenny and/or get V.M.L. released to them throughout the 70 hours between when the two of them and Jenny’s other child were taken into custody and flown to Texas before Friday’s flight to Honduras.

On Friday, in the wake of all of this information, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty issued an order setting a hearing “[i]n the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.” The order was first reported by Politico.

That the order came from Doughty, a far-right Trump appointee known for his harsh criticism of the Biden administration in a case about social media that was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, was yet another reminder of how alarming the Trump administration’s actions are being seen by judges of all backgrounds.

Of the deportation of a two-year-old U.S. citizen, Doughty wrote on Friday, “The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the Court doesn’t know that.“

The following timeline is collected from the habeas petition, memorandum of law in support of the motion for a temporary restraining order, the Justice Department’s opposition, petitioner’s reply, and Doughty’s order.

At 8:30 a.m. CT Tuesday, Jenny had a routine check-in as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At that check-in, in which she was required to bring her children, all three were taken into custody.

By Tuesday night, Adiel’s lawyer had reached out repeatedly trying to figure out where Jenny and the kids were taken and why. In an email sent to ICE’s New Orleans Field Office director, among others, his lawyer noted the ICE directives regarding children, adding, “Your office's lack of care towards children and denial of access to counsel are a blatant denial of due process.”

Among the other steps sought in the email was “[a] pause on executing Ms. Lopez's order of removal until Mr. Mendez and Ms. Lopez have been able to speak and the Parental Interest protocol is respected, as well as her release.“

Adiel also on Tuesday executed a document giving provisional custody of V.M.L. to Trish Mack, Adiel’s sister-in-law. Documents filed by Trish’s counsel note that she is a U.S. citizen and suggest that Adiel feared being detained and deported himself.

On Wednesday, Adiel’s lawyer spoke with the field director, Mellissa Harper, and was questioned about Adiel’s immigration status, per the petition. Throughout the day Wednesday, Trish also unsuccessfully sought information about the family’s location.

On Thursday morning, Trish’s counsel began contacting people in the Eastern District of Louisiana U.S. Attorney’s Office, eventually connecting with attorneys in the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation, Joseph McCarter and Bichngoc Do, and learning — about 2 p.m. — that Jenny and the kids had been moved to Alexandria, Louisiana, which is in the Western District of Louisiana.

When that call did not end with guarantee of any call with Jenny, Trish’s counsel stated they would be filing a habeas petition “imminently.” Soon thereafter, according to Trish’s counsel, Do stated that “ICE would facilitate a legal call, but it would be in the next 24-48 hours.” Per Trish’s counsel, three hours later — but after the court had closed for the day — McCarter and Do stated that, despite the call assurance, ICE was going to deport V.M.L. with her mother before court would open on Friday.

Less than two hours after that, V.M.L.’s habeas petition and emergency TRO motion were filed by Trish’s lawyers.

In DOJ’s overnight response, signed by McCarter, the Trump administration claimed that the short, handwritten, post-detention letter from Jenny asserting that she would bring V.M.L. with her to Honduras meant that — citing only to the note — “Ms. Lopez Villela made known that she does not want V.M.L. released from her custody.”

In a reply filed Friday morning, Trish’s counsel responded to this claim directly:

Respondents’ filing states that VML’s mother has made known that she does not want V.M.L. released from custody. That is emphatically NOT what the note says. The note states factually that V.M.L.’s mother “is bringing” V.M.L. with her. This is not a statement of intent, hope, desire, or assessment of what is best of V.M.L. At minimum, V.M.L. deserves for there to be a conversation between her caregivers to ensure that they agree on what is best for her.

The lawyers also stated that they believed Jenny and the kids had already been flown to Texas.

Enter Doughty.

In the judge’s Friday order, he told the country what happened next:

Seeking the path of least resistance, the Court called counsel for the Government at 12:19 p.m. CST, so that we could speak with VML’s mother and survey her consent and custodial rights. The Court was independently aware at the time that the plane, tail number N570TA, was above the Gulf of America. The Court was then called back by counsel for the Government at 1:06 p.m. CST, informing the Court that a call with VML’s mother would not be possible, because she (and presumably VML) had just been released in Honduras.

The hearing ordered by Doughty in the case was set for 9 a.m. CT May 16, but I would expect more to happen in the case before then give the circumstances.