Rubio Denies Deportation of Young U.S. Citizens, Clarifies Family Choices

Senator Marco Rubio has firmly denied allegations that the U.S. government deported young American citizens, clarifying that the children’s mothers, who were illegally in the U.S., chose to take their children with them upon deportation.

In a recent statement addressing a controversial Washington Post report, Senator Marco Rubio refuted claims that three U.S. citizen children, aged two, four, and seven, were deported. Rubio emphasized that the deportation targeted the mothers, who were in the country illegally, and the children accompanied their mothers voluntarily. “That’s a misleading headline. Three U.S. citizens were not deported. Their mothers were legally deported, and the children went with their mothers,” Rubio stated, highlighting that the children could return to the U.S. if their fathers or other suitable guardians took responsibility for them.

The Washington Post had reported that these children, including a four-year-old with stage-4 cancer, were deported from a facility in Louisiana. The family’s lawyers claimed the mother of the four-year-old had no way to contact the child’s doctors. Rubio argued that the narrative around the deportation was misleading, asserting that the mothers’ decisions to take their children were respected.

U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty, however, expressed skepticism about the government’s claims, suggesting in an emergency order that the government may have deported a U.S. citizen without due process. This order came after the father of the two-year-old girl filed an emergency request, stating that his daughter was taken to Honduras with her mother after an immigration meeting.

Rubio remains steadfast in his stance, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to border security while clarifying that the choice to take the children lay with the mothers. He posed a hypothetical scenario where the alternative—leaving the children behind—could lead to accusations of the U.S. holding children hostage. This situation continues to spark debate over immigration policies and the rights of U.S. citizen children.