Honduran family, 6-year-old with leukemia released from ICE detention

USA Today

7 hours ago

The family is among a growing number of people detained despite entering the country legally during the Biden administration.
A 6-year-old Honduran boy with leukemia who had been held in immigration detention with his family since May was released July 2.
The boy, his mother and 9-year-old sister entered the country legally last fall seeking asylum. Federal agents arrested them as they left an immigration hearing in Los Angeles on May 29. They were held in a privately run family detention center in South Texas. Their release was made public July 3, but their future remains unclear.
Lawyers for the family sued for their release, arguing their detention violated their constitutional rights of due process and unreasonable seizure. The lawyers feared that, since leukemia in children requires consistent treatment, the boy's care would be disrupted if they were deported to Honduras or detained for too long.
Migrants who followed Biden's rules no longer welcome, Trump says
The family's situation is similar to many immigrants who arrived during the Biden administration, following the rules at the time and not violating any laws. Recently, though, the Trump administration has decided that most of them should not be in the United States, and has been detaining a growing number of migrants as they show up to mandatory court hearings.
'Can ICE snatch law-abiding people out of their communities at courthouses when those individuals are doing exactly what the government required of them?' said Elora Mukherjee, a lawyer for the family and director of the Columbia Law School Immigrants' Rights Clinic.
Neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to an emailed request for comment.
The family entered the United States in October through the CBP One App, which allowed migrants to apply for asylum screening interviews at the border, according to court filings. President Donald Trump's administration repurposed the app for migrants to leave the country.
A DHS spokesperson said in a June 28 statement that most migrants who entered the country within the last two years, while Joe Biden was president, are subject to expedited removal.
Cancer diagnosis and danger back home
The family drew national media attention, especially given the child's cancer, which lawyers say still requires treatment. Their names haven't been released due to threats they face in Honduras.
The boy, diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 3, had most recently been undergoing two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy. He has about half a year of treatment left.
The family was released along the U.S.-Mexico border, hours from where they were held near San Antonio, at the South Texas Family Residential Center, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy organization representing the family in court.
As of July 3, they were staying in a shelter awaiting a way to return to Los Angeles, where they were living with a relative before their arrest. The family is also seeking to get the boy medical care to continue his chemotherapy, Mukherjee said.