said deportation of a U.S. citizen is "illegal and unconstitutional" and that he had a "strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process." Several U.S. citizens, including immigration lawyers, received notices from the federal government instructing them to "self-deport". Even in cases in which migrants choose to use the
CBP Home App in an attempt to self-deport, evidence shows that many are never contacted by the U.S. government, which promises them a safe return to country of origin.
ProPublica reports that more than a dozen
Venezuelans used the app as told, signed up, and were even given departure dates that subsequently came and went without notice. Concerns have been raised that the app may be useless in such instances where the State Department does not have the ability to acquire documents and obtain safe passage to locations that are politically fraught or dangerous.
2-year-old child A 2-year-old US citizen was deported to
Honduras with her mother, Jenny Carolina Lopez-Villela, Lopez-Villela and V.M.L.'s sister came to the United States in September 2019 to seek asylum after the attempted kidnapping of Janelle. They awaited court hearing in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols. They attended two hearings before they were forced to return to Honduras in November 2019 to avoid dangerous conditions in
Matamoros. While they were in Honduras, an immigration court ordered them removed in absentia in March 2020, and they were never informed of this. They returned to the Mexican side of the US border in March 2021 to seek asylum but, while waiting to get in, they were detained in
Nuevo Laredo. They eventually entered the US in August 2021, being released to the custody of Janelle's father in Louisiana and instructed to attend regular ICE check ins, which they did. During this time, V.M.L. was born in 2023. In February 2025, Lopez-Villela was placed in the "Intensive Supervision Appearance Program". On April 22, 2025, they went to the ISAP appointment and were detained. According to court filings, the three were taken to a hotel in Alexandria, three hours away, and were told they were to be deported the next day. Lopez-Villela was then allowed to talk to V.M.L.'s father for less than a minute on an ICE officer's phone with the ICE officer present. V.M.L.'s father was told that V.M.L. would be deported, to which he objected since she was a US-born citizen. He tried to read out a lawyer's phone number, but the ICE officer hung up. According to the court filing, she was not allowed to arrange for V.M.L.'s care. An attorney working for V.M.L.'s family attempted to set up a call for the family and delivered a mandate delegating custody of V.M.L. to another family member living in the United States. ICE refused to set up the call or provide information and their location. His lawyer called immigration officials and informed them that V.M.L. is a US citizen and could not be deported. The lawyer repeatedly attempted to set up a phone call with Lopez-Villela and between V.M.L.'s parents but this was reportedly refused. On April 24, V.M.L's father and their lawyer finally found out where the three were in a phone call with DOJ's
Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL), but OIL refused to hand V.M.L. over to anyone other than her father. Judge Doughty ordered a hearing on the matter for May 16, 2025. Referring to the deportation of V.M.L. and two other young children who are American citizens, the executive director of
ACLU of Louisiana said, "Once again, the government has used deceptive tactics to deny people their rights. [...] They must be returned." In May 2025, the family of V.M.L. voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against the Trump administration "to give themselves space and time to consider all the options that are available to them."
Four-year-old cancer patient and 7-year-old sibling Two American citizens, a 7-year-old girl (identified as A.A.Z.M. in court documents) and her 4-year-old brother "Romeo", were sent to
Honduras along with their mother, a Honduran national, on April 25, 2025. Romeo has
stage 4 cancer. Reachel Alexas Morales-Valle, now the mother of Romeo and A.A.Z.M., crossed into the United States in 2013 at the age of 13 and requested asylum at the border. Following a February 2025 traffic stop, she was detained by ICE and placed in the ISAP supervision program, which prompted her to hire an immigration attorney. After hiring an attorney, she discovered that she had been issued an in absentia order of removal in 2015. She attended all of her ISAP appointments and met all requirements. While trying to reschedule an appointment, she was told to bring her American children and their passports to an appointment the next day in
Saint Rose, Louisiana. According to an attorney for the family, Morales-Valle was told that the purpose of the check in was to photocopy the children's passports, and the children wore their school uniforms, expecting to return to school once the appointment was over. The three of them were separated from their lawyer and then detained. The attorneys were in the midst of preparing habeas corpus petitions for the children, but the children were deported before the attorneys could file them. The 4-year-old had his cancer medication with him, but was not permitted to access it in detention, and was not allowed to bring the medication with him when he was deported. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio denied that the children had been deported, instead saying that they "went with their mothers", and that because they are citizens, they could return to the U.S. if the families arranged for someone in the U.S. to care for them. They sued for declaratory relief, Administrative Procedure Act relief, injunctive relief, and monetary damages for the violation of their rights.
Ten-year-old child with brain cancer and four siblings A 10-year-old girl with brain cancer, who is an American citizen, was deported with her parents and four siblings to Mexico after being stopped at an immigration checkpoint while on the way to an emergency medical appointment on February 4, 2025. The eldest child, aged 15, also has a heart condition called
Long QT Syndrome. Four of the five children were born in the US.
Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos 5-year-old U.S. citizen Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos, of
Austin, Texas, was deported to Honduras alongside her mother on January 11, 2026. ICE agents were acting on a deportation order issued in 2019, a year before Gutiérrez Castellanos was born in 2020.
Brian Morales / Bryan Jose Morales-Garcia According to
Univision journalist Lidia Terrazas, Brian Morales—a U.S. citizen who was born in
Denver, Colorado, and raised in Mexico—was deported to Mexico on April 7, 2026, after a traffic stop by
United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. Terrazas's report, made after contacting Morales, claims that Morales originally entered the U.S. legally with his birth certificate, was threatened by agents with deportation or prison time for fraud, and was ignored when claiming that he had proof of citizenship at home. Morales also told Terrazas that he was pressured into telling officers "what they wanted to hear" and signing voluntary removal papers out of fear of being imprisoned, which he was worried would prevent him from seeing his daughter. Morales also stated that his boss—also a U.S. citizen—was detained by
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A spokesperson for the
United States Department of Homeland Security denied the citizenship status of Morales, whose name they claim to be Bryan Jose Morales-Garcia, alleging that he was confirmed to be in the U.S. illegally after record checks by
United States Border Patrol agents. The spokesperson also alleged that Morales-Garcia admitted to being a Mexican national and entering the U.S. illegally. ==Detentions==