Mother & Daughter Deported During Court Proceeding – Judge Emmet Sullivan Orders Plane To Turn Around

On Thursday, a deported mother and her daughter had to brought back to the U.S. from El Salvador, where there just had landed.

The order came from an angry federal judge after the mother, identified in court papers as “Carmen” and her minor daughter had been whisked away by U.S. authorities before a court hearing on their deportation status could be finished.

“I know I’m raising my voice, but I’m extremely upset about this,” said U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan during Thursday’s hearing. “Somebody … is seeking justice in a United States court is spirited away while her attorneys are arguing for justice for her? It’s outrageous. Turn that plane around and bring those people back to the United States.”

The hearing took place because of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. It challenges a decision by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to exclude domestic and gang violence as reasons for immigrants to be granted asylum. The ACLU sought a stay of removal for its plaintiffs.

“In its rush to deport as many immigrants as possible, the Trump Administration is putting these women and children in grave danger of being raped, beaten or killed,” ACLU’s lead attorney in the case Jennifer Chang Newell told NBC News.

On Thursday, the administration of President Donald Trump updated its figures on separated children from migrant parents at the border. Of 2,551 separated children, 559 are still apart from their parents, 386 of whom have been deported, according to the report. Officials have heard from 299 of the parents abroad in the last week. But the government, in the filing by the U.S. Department of Justice, stated that it has essentially lost track of the deported parents of 26 separated kids.

Article by Steven Abendroth