ICE sends 3 U.S. citizen kids, including boy with stage 4 cancer, to Honduras with deported family members

Three children, including a 4-year-old boy with stage-four kidney cancer, were swept up by ICE authorities and sent to Honduras, despite being American citizens.

Despite being American citizens, three children — a 4-year-old boy with Stage 4 kidney cancer, his 7-year-old sister and a 2-year-old girl — were swept up along with their families by immigration authorities in Louisiana and quickly sent to Honduras, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the families.

The suit alleges that despite the government’s own directives, the parents “were never given a choice as to whether their children should be deported with them and were prohibited from contacting their counsel or having meaningful contact with their families to arrange for the care of their children.” The mothers, named in the suit as Rosario and Julia, allege they wanted their children to remain in the U.S.

Instead, the families were “illegally deported without even a semblance of due process,” the lawsuit states.

Romeo, as the now 5-year-old is identified in the lawsuit, was diagnosed with a “rare and aggressive form of kidney cancer,” at age 2. He immediately began receiving ongoing “critical, life-saving medical treatment” in the U.S., according to the lawsuit, which was filed by immigrant advocacy group National Immigration Project and three law firms.

“The failure to allow his mother to arrange for his care, in violation of ICE’s own directive, and his unlawful deportation to Honduras interfered with his needed medical treatment,” the suit said.