On Wednesday, immigration officials confirmed that they had deported the mother of two young U.S. citizens from Texas.
The mother’s husband and children’s father’s attorney revealed that the mother, along with the twins and two other children, faced arrest and were deported to Mexico. This unfortunate incident occurred because the mother missed a hearing while she was recovering from an emergency C-section to deliver the infants.
In September, the twins were born. According to media reports, Cristina Geraldyn Salazar-Hinojosa, 23, the mother, along with the infant twins and two other children, were deported. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement clarified that only the mother was deported, as ICE does not deport U.S. citizens.
According to an ICE spokesperson, U.S. citizens are not deported by ICE. The responsibility of deciding whether minors with U.S. citizenship should leave the country with their parents lies solely with the parents.
Federico Arellano, the father of the children, is a U.S. citizen.
According to WOAI in San Antonio, the mother had to reschedule her immigration hearing due to an emergency C-section.
According to ICE, Salazar-Hinojosa is accused of illegally entering the U.S. on June 28 through the Rio Grande Valley area. The spokesperson stated that she was released on June 29 as part of the Alternatives to Detention program while awaiting her immigration proceedings.
According to a spokesperson, Salazar-Hinojosa did not appear at a hearing on October 9th. As a result, a judge from the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered his removal. The Department of Justice did not provide any comment in response to the request.
According to Isaias Torres, the attorney representing Salazar-Hinojosa’s husband, he believes that the case did not need to escalate to this extent. He argues that there were alternative legal options that could have been pursued, but unfortunately, his client was not given the opportunity to explore them.
NBC News reached out to Torres for comment, but there was no immediate response.
According to the attorney, Salazar-Hinojosa was unable to attend the hearing as she was advised by doctors to stay home and recover. The family had informed the court about this and were assured that the hearing would be rescheduled. However, when they arrived at a Houston-area location for further discussion, they were unexpectedly arrested.
According to attorneys, Arellano attempted to provide an explanation, but ICE agents stopped him from doing so.
“They were taken aback and caught off guard by the fact that they were separated,” Torres expressed.
President Joe Biden has faced criticism from Republicans who claim that his policies have left the border vulnerable to illegal immigration. However, according to a June report by the Migration Policy Institute, Biden’s deportations are projected to exceed those carried out during Donald Trump’s initial administration.
In November, Trump was elected with a promise to carry out the most extensive mass deportation operation in American history. Tim Homan, Trump’s choice to lead ICE, has stated that the only way to prevent families from being separated under Trump’s plan is to “send them all back.”
In a recent exclusive interview with “Meet the Press,” Trump expressed his desire to end the constitutional guarantee of U.S. citizenship for people born in the United States. This guarantee, except for children of certain foreign diplomats, ensures that individuals are granted U.S. citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
According to a report released in 2021 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), it was discovered that over a span of approximately five years, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency arrested 674 individuals, detained 121, and deported 70 individuals who were potentially U.S. citizens. At the time, the GAO uncovered a lack of adequate data regarding deportations of U.S. citizens by ICE.
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