A Honduran mother is suing the Trump administration after ICE agents arrested her and her two children, ages 6 and 9, outside the Los Angeles Immigration Court on May 29 according to Texas Public Radio. It marks the first legal challenge against ICE’s new courthouse arrest policy involving children.
The family had legally entered the U.S. in October using the now-discontinued CBP One App and was granted parole while awaiting an asylum hearing. They had been living in Los Angeles, where the children were enrolled in public school and actively involved in their local community.
ICE agents in plain clothes detained the family in the hallway. One officer lifted his shirt to reveal a firearm, terrifying the 6-year-old, who urinated on himself and wasn’t offered clean clothes for hours. The family was then transferred to the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, where they have been held for several weeks.
The boy, who has leukemia, missed a medical appointment due to the arrest. The lawsuit, filed by the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School and the Texas Civil Rights Project, argues the arrest violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments and demands the family’s immediate release.
They are now in expedited removal, which allows deportation without a hearing. Attorneys fear they could be deported before the case is heard. DHS has not commented.
Under the Trump administration’s directive to reach 3,000 immigration arrests per day, ICE has faced growing scrutiny. Cato Institute data shows over 93% of those arrested this year were not convicted of violent crimes.
