Rubio pressed on 2-, 4- and 7-year-old citizens removed from country
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said three young children, ages 2, 4 and 7, who are all U.S. citizens removed from the country in recent weeks, were "not deported" but "went with their mothers" to Honduras.
The children, from two different families, were put on a flight to the Central American country with their mothers on April 25, according to multiple outlets.
The 4-year-old has Stage 4 cancer and is without access to medication or contact with doctors, The Washington Post and The Associated Press reported. The 4-year-old and 7-year-old are siblings.
NBC News' Kristen Welker referred to the Post's account in an interview on "Meet the Press" with Rubio on April 27. The secretary of state pushed back, calling the headline "misleading."
"Three U.S. citizens ages 4, 7 and 2 were not deported," Rubio said. "Their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers."
"If those children are U.S. citizens, they can come back into the United States if their father or someone here wants to assume them," he added.
According to court documents, a lawyer for the father of the 2-year-old, a girl identified by the initials V.M.L., called immigration officials when the mother, V.M.L. and her 11-year-old sister were detained in Louisiana to inform them that V.M.L. is a citizen. The girl's mother had been apprehended as she attended a routine appointment at Immigration and Customs Enforcement's New Orleans office.
The father, who lives in the United States, asked for V.M.L. to be placed with a friend of the family named Trish Mack, who was "ready and willing" to care for the child in the country.
The father's citizenship status was unclear. He was told he would also be taken into custody if he were to try to pick up his daughter, according to the court filing.
V.M.L., her mother and sister, who was born in Honduras, were removed from the United States early in the morning April 25. Lawyers representing their family had already filed a petition seeking the 2-year-old girl's release.
U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty scheduled a hearing for May 19 "in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process."
“It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S. citizen,” Doughty said.
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Asked by Welker whether citizens and noncitizens alike are entitled to due process, Rubio answered, "Yes, of course."
"But let me tell you, in immigration standing the laws are very specific," he continued, defending the removals. "If you're in this country unlawfully, you have no right to be here and you must be removed. That's what the law says. Somehow over the last 20 years we've completely lost this notion."
Contributing: Sarah Wire, Paste BN; Reuters