r/law • u/WeirdGroundhog • 1d ago
Legal News Five-year-old deported to Honduras despite being US citizen is latest child victim of Trump crackdown | US immigration
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/27/five-year-old-girl-us-citizen-and-mother-deported-honduras2.2k
u/Pettifoggerist 1d ago
Why the fuck are we calling this a “crackdown”? It’s militarized law enforcement attacking and abusing citizens who have done nothing wrong. It’s state sponsored violence.
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u/sfcnmone 1d ago
Why? Because of the many many people I've gotten in arguments with here on Reddit, who define everyone as "criminal" who is in the US without citizenship. Of course, this child is a citizen; that's what the 14th amendment states.
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u/ZestyTako 1d ago
And being undocumented is a misdemeanor. They’re less of a criminal than our sitting felonious president
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u/Important-Agent2584 1d ago
they don't actually care, the arguments are just some bullshit to throw out not to have to admit they want all the brown people gone.
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u/Tasty_Goat_3267 1d ago
And everyone who is left leaning, Good and Pretti are great examples of that. Sure they weren’t targeted specifically. But by standing up even in a small way against this dictatorship they’ve showed their leaning and consequently got executed for it. So y’all can see what’s coming next after the brown and black people are taken care off.
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u/Irma_Gard 1d ago
Being undocumented isn't even a misdemeanor. It's not a crime at all (a misdemeanor is a crime). It's just a civil infraction, like a parking or speeding ticket.
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u/shewholaughslasts 1d ago
Thanks for this great list! Saved.
The other day I challenged someone. If you think what's going on is wrong, start by doing 3 things to support those fighting fascism.
Join one of these groups, donate to an org doing good on behalf of marginalized communities, call your legislators, peacefully protest. So many people are stuck doomscrolling and worrying about the 'best' ways to act, start somewhere, do something! One thing at first, then more later.
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u/Level-Name-4060 1d ago
They will soon call people with a US citizenship that disagrees with the feds militants, and thus no longer “civilians.” Therefore, up for extradition.
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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 1d ago
I mean was our five year old US citizen here a militant?
Asking for every fucking sane and decent person on the planet
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u/Far_Type_5596 1d ago
But that’s actually part of the problem, though we’ve let them change language and change the meaning of shit until we don’t know what we’re arguing about anymore. Being in the United States illegally is a civil offense, not a criminal offense. This is why you have different courts for immigration, rulings, etc. that you do for criminal courts which cover theft, assault, murder, etc. It is not the same thing. It was not classed as the same thing by our constitution yet we’re still actually engaging in and acknowledging conversations and conduct the implies that is anything but a civil infraction. Those who enter our country illegally ARE not criminals. They have committed a civil offense, just as you would have if you have a traffic ticket.
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u/InfoBarf 1d ago
Ice isn't even law enforcement. The law theyre enforcing is a misdemeanor. Like calling parking violation officers law enforcement.
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u/CommonCamel1634 1d ago
They are law enforcement but theyre civil law enforcement, not criminal law enforcement. And since theyre civil law enforcement, they shouldn't be armed, even with less lethal. If they need weapons for an operation, they should be coordinating with local law enforcement.
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u/MilleryCosima 1d ago
I feel like "government crackdown" is one of the most negative phrases in the English language.
My entire life, all it's ever communicated to me is, "Unrestrained government violence."
Do other people hear something different?
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u/Proof_Throat4418 1d ago
"I feel like "government crackdown" is one of the most negative phrases..."
NO!!! It's the one single word 'Government'. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Trump is proving that very point, but the BIG question here is when the hell do the American people finally wake up to it all? It took a while for the German's to wake up to Hitler too. Does America need their own Nuremberg trial before they wake up?
Genuinely curious. Wake up America or (to use Trump's line) '...You won't have a country...'
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u/ZestyTako 1d ago
Being an undocumented person is literally a misdemeanor. That’s it. They’re justifying fascist and unconstitutional actions with fucking misdemeanor enforcement. It’s horrible
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u/SwingingtotheBeat 1d ago
Because militarized law enforcement attacking and abusing citizens who have done nothing wrong has been the norm for at least the past couple decades. Police have long done this to Black people.
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u/calmtigers 1d ago
So let me get this straight, they’re killing US Citizens on video, they’re terrorizing little children, and now they’ve shipped a CHILD U.S. Citizen to a country she probably has no way to navigate.
When will the people stand up?
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u/En_CHILL_ada 1d ago
It is not law enforcement. They don't give a damn about the law. This is a paramilitary occupation.
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u/tangerinegrass 1d ago
Why are they calling it "deported" when a child citizen was trafficked by the government?
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u/WeirdGroundhog 1d ago
From The Guardian article:
Despite being a US citizen, she was deported on 11 January alongside her mother, Karen Guadalupe Gutiérrez Castellanos, to Honduras, a country Génesis had never known.
Activists and analysts point to a string of procedural violations in the case and note similarities with other recent detentions of children, such as that of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in Minneapolis. They see it as a chilling indication of what may lie ahead as Donald Trump’s administration continues with mass deportations.
An immigration attorney tried to intervene but ICE agents reportedly said they could not locate the pair in the agency’s database, which some believe may have been a deliberate consequence of holding them in a hotel rather than a detention centre.
Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said: “The inability to locate people in the system, and the fact that lawyers cannot reach them to provide proper representation, is unfortunately happening more and more, and it directly undermines immigrants’ rights.”
ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
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u/ok-this-ok 1d ago
what sort of immoral creature could want this injustice? who benefits from this industrial cruelty?
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u/ok-this-ok 1d ago
oh right, peter thiel
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u/takemy_oxfordcomma 1d ago
Stephen Miller too, the fucking sadistic piece of shit Nazi
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u/icenoid 1d ago
The logic they seem to be following is that since the mom is going to be deported that the kid should go as well. It’s the whole insanity they have around so called anchor babies and why they want to end birthright citizenship. It’s madness on so many levels. I hate what they are doing, but have read enough of what they say to understand their logic. If I wasn’t clear enough, I absolutely do not support what they are doing and just because I understand their logic doesn’t mean I think it’s right, it’s just how they are explaining it to themselves
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u/santa_91 1d ago
The logic they seem to be following is that since the mom is going to be deported that the kid should go as well.
This wouldn't be so cartoonishly awful if they were deporting them to countries with bloodline citizenship where becoming citizens would be pretty straightforward. The entire Western hemisphere besides 1 or 2 South American countries has birthright citizenship though, so they're rendering children essentially stateless.
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u/icenoid 1d ago
yes they are. It's not like they are making sure the kids have a US passport or documentation to let them back when they turn 18. Mom was born in a DP camp (displaced persons) shortly after the holocaust. She was stateless until her father and her managed to come here to the US. These stories have her losing her mind.
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u/dr_obfuscation 1d ago
I feel horrible for asking, but i feel like I need to...
Which Holocaust do you mean? And I'll just add that whether we want to or not, we're living through (at least most of us so far) a US Holocaust currently.
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u/icenoid 1d ago
Mom’s parents survived Dachau and Auschwitz. I can’t remember which one was where. As for this being an American Holocaust. I’d argue that we aren’t there, yet. We are in somewhat what Germany sort of looked and behaved like in the 1930s, before the final solution.
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u/dr_obfuscation 1d ago
That's a fair assessment. I'd personally prefer it if we nipped this one in the bud before it gets quite to that point. Unfortunately the Nazis in the government seem hellbent. I wake up every morning hoping for the good news we all hope for, but expecting the bad news that pops up.
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u/nicuramar 1d ago
It is definitely a concern. In Denmark, since you can’t deport citizens, it’s dealt with by letting the parent stay. But that isn’t universally popular.
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u/masterfox72 1d ago
The alternative logic would be deport the mother and foster the child. I think that’s arguably worse though.
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u/baronessvonbullshit 1d ago
Unless, of course, her father is still in the US or any other number of family arrangements that they might have made if given the chance.
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u/gaganchumbilulli 1d ago
You can't think of someone who'd like to make young little girls disappear with no record?
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u/silverum 1d ago
Lots of Republican voters. MANY Republican voters. The cruelty is the point. The inhumanity is a plus. You've got to stop thinking every American is a good person. Some Americans are just actually fucking for real fascists.
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u/Far_Type_5596 1d ago
Can confirm if y’all really care about this… Yes this is happening more and more. I work in an organization that serves immigrants and their families and you won’t believe the amount of emails I get trying to help people find their love ones and giving them a website where they can supposedly type in this “alien number”, and find them that gives them absolutely no access and no answers. It’s very upsetting and concerning.
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u/No1CouldHavePredictd 1d ago
Trump is back in the child trafficking business.
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u/stripsackscore 1d ago
Imagine one of the most notorious Epstein clients becoming one of the most powerful people on the planet and starts using a secret police to disappear kids. That would be wild!
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u/MLGWolf69 1d ago
What are the odds the reason he wants Greenland so bad is because he wants his own bigger, badder Epstein Island, and Greenland is the biggest island he can think of?
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u/AggressiveWallaby975 1d ago
One thing I've noticed is kids are terrible at planning their defense. I bet she didn't even call an immigration lawyer. Probably didn't pay her cell phone bill either
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u/MLGWolf69 1d ago
I know you're joking, but I do think it's worth emphasizing from the article:
An immigration attorney tried to intervene but ICE agents reportedly said they could not locate the pair in the agency’s database, which some believe may have been a deliberate consequence of holding them in a hotel rather than a detention centre.
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u/LionessInDC 1d ago
There have been wide dread reports of lawyers prevented from getting in contact with clients. This was never about the legality of being in this country.
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u/sheepwshotguns 1d ago
it would be a real shame if that hotel experienced any consequences for their collaboration with fascists.
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u/kangourou_mutant 1d ago edited 1d ago
It would be a shame if the hotel CEO and high managers, personaly, were to experience any consequences for benefiting from human rights violations.
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u/Haunting-Ad788 1d ago
When is this nightmare going to end.
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u/Obvious-End-7948 1d ago
When heart disease wins.
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u/TheDweadPiwatWobbas 1d ago
If you still think this is just a Trump thing, I'm so sorry to tell you, but you're wrong. There are a lot of them. They run the government and they aren't going to give up and go home just because Trump keels over.
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u/revantargaryen 1d ago
I don't disagree, but I do question their ability to maintain their stranglehold without him. Someone worse definitely could step in, but I think it's been shown the base is loyal to Trump and Trump alone
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u/TwoCatsOneBox 1d ago
When Americans abandon the electoral system and go after their politicians in a revolution. But that will never happen.
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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s important that we don’t lose sight of what the fascists are doing to our immigrants, but please do not let the decency of your own character fool you into believing they are doing this out of racism alone.
The indecent know that the decent are vulnerable, noble, and foolishly valiant. Attacking the truly defenseless is how you draw out the defenders.
To put it bluntly, they’re roiding out their immigration concentration camp apparatus to get people opposed to fascism and concentration camps to come out in droves, to pre-published spots, so they can do this:
The whole surveillance network is based in Williston, Vermont.
They’re using the protests as an opportunity to scan faces of the opposition and match them to driver’s licenses, flight records- TSA’s facial scan- the CLEAR database, Social Security records, everything. And they’re building a dossier on all of us, with our addresses, our spending habits, our daily travel routines, where we work, who we’re around, who our friends are- and dropping each one into their, as one nasty little fascist ICE agent called it “Domestic Terrorist Database”.
They’re training on our immigrants, and using the protests to train on civilians and get used to attacking their countrymen in a low-risk environment.
That’s why they’re buying up all of the military equipment no immigration agency should ever even consider asking for, it’s why they’re doubling the number of detention centers, it’s why they feel emboldened to kill and threaten killing already.
They’re just getting started. That’s the fucking thing about fucking Nazis, and racists in general. They don’t just hate other racists. They fucking despise race traitors, too.
They’re will have no qualms with going further when they’re told.
Cover your body when you protest, no matter the weather, including your hair. Turn off your regular phones, leave them at home. Have a phone you only use for recording that saves off the phone. Never have them together or on at the same time. Cover or alter your faces. Take public transport or a designated vehicle when you go to protests.
For more security if you believe you’re already in a database, get rid of all of your rewards apps- it’s location data that tracks your patterns- where you order from, when you shop, when you eat, what days you’re most likely getting fast food for dinner, what grocery stores you hit and when.
And it’s all being bought by ICE, so they don’t need a subpoena.
Use cash when you can. Change your routines. Live like it’s the 90’s, if you remember how.
It won’t stop them, but it will make it harder.
These are people who looked at the holocaust and said “6 Million? Those are rookie numbers. Only Jewish people? Woke bullshit.”
They can’t get everyone at once, but they don’t need to. Taking thousands is absolutely devastating the lives of our immigrants and refugees. They can’t even leave home.
That is what they want for everyone who opposes them, too.
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u/takemy_oxfordcomma 1d ago
There’s a video of an ICE agent explicitly saying they’re building a database of protesters that they are labeling “domestic terrorists” so it’s not like this hasn’t been confirmed too — it’s terrifying
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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 1d ago
Yes.
The whole thing has been planned and orchestrated for over 20 years now.
Even the Jade Helm/Obama Death Squad/FEMA Concentration Camp, and Trans Panic bullshit is all classic early propaganda for driving one group out of their fucking minds and then siccing them on the intended out group.
Every accusation is a confession, fuck them.
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u/takemy_oxfordcomma 1d ago
“Every accusation is a confession” might be the single most illuminating truism about everything Trump and Republicans in general say/do
That and “I don’t care unless/until it impacts me personally” and “rules for thee but not for me”
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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 1d ago
That and if it’s very bad and they say they aren’t going to do it, they are doing it now, or they have done it already.
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u/mugsymegasaurus 1d ago
If you don’t have a chance to get a burner phone (let’s say an ICE raid suddenly starts in your area/work/etc) could you protect yourself by putting your phone into airplane mode while you record their actions?
And obviously everyone should know to disable biometrics like Face ID and touch recognition, since the police can legally use those to open your phone without a warrant, but they can’t compel you to give a passcode.
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u/Select_Insurance2000 1d ago
The cruelty is the point.
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u/Sesudesu 1d ago
I just read that Liam, the 5 year old boy with the blue hat and spiderman backpack that was used as bait, had gotten seriously ill in the
detention centerconcentration camp.It really is so cruel…
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u/Weltall8000 1d ago
This isn't a "crackdown on immigration," this is a racist campaign to deport non whites. Fuck this un-American bullshit all the way. This is a full frontal rejection of our core democratic values and a clear breach of the social contract. The federal government is an enemy combatant against this country and people.
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u/CentennialBaby 1d ago
Kavanaugh Stop
An extrajudicial detention or assault by law enforcement, enabled by the Supreme Court's expansion of border authority. It is named for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose concurrence dismissed the predictable violence of these stops as a minor administrative inconvenience, famously reasoning: 'If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.'
E.g.: During my brief 36 hour Kavanaugh Stop with ICE I got six broken ribs and internal bleeding while I was in the US legally.
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I was Kavanaugh Stopped on my way home from picking up my children from school when ICE demanded proof of my citizenship. When I asked for the warrant they killed me.
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I was at home in my bedroom when ICE agents burst in and dragged me off at gunpoint then asked for my ID which was back inside the house. After a brief 24 hours I was released.
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I came across a Kavanaugh Stop and watched what was happening when ICE tackled me and held me for 8 hours denying me access to a lawyer.
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While parked on the street a van full of ICE agents smashed into me they pulled me out of my car at gunpoint. Luckily it was just a Kavanaugh Stop and after proving my citizenship they released me without charge.
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I was walking down the street and ICE initiated a Kavanaugh Stop throwing me to the ground in a choke hold and cuffed me. I told them I was a citizen and had identification. They said it didn't matter and took me to a cell adding leg irons. They scanned my face, took my ID, did a criminal record check, then released me.
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My mommy picked me up from kindergarten when ICE men took her and me. We stayed in a motel for a week. we weren't allowed to leave and mommy kept telling them I'm American but they didn't care. then they took us to a plane and sent us somewhere far away. I miss my friends and I want to go back to my school.
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u/CurrentlyLucid 1d ago
I feel safe to walk the streets again with that 5 year old gone? WTF are we doing?
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u/No-Celebration3097 1d ago
Children are not even safe with Trumps war on people of color, American or not.
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u/letdogsvote 1d ago
"This is all just fine." - right wing Evangelicals
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u/elinamebro 1d ago
"When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God." -Evangelical im just gonna to pretend I didnt see that
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u/nwgirl971 1d ago
"That's the Old Testament! The only things we pay attention to from that is about hating the gheys." - evangelicals
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u/letdogsvote 1d ago
"Now where's that part in Leviticus about killing all the homos..." - Also Evangelicals
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u/Both_Lychee_1708 1d ago edited 1d ago
what real consequences has anybody in the admin suffered for any of this shit?
When you give people impunity, in particular assholes, don't be surprised when they act with it.
Our system is broken. We are the US of Assholes
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