Girl, 5, deported to Honduras despite being US citizen, becomes latest victim of Trump crackdown

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/27/five-year-old-girl-us-citizen-and-mother-deported-honduras

35 Comments

  1. **SUMMARY:**
    US Citizen Child Deported to Honduras with Mother
    Five-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos, a US citizen, was deported to Honduras alongside her mother on January 11, 2025, despite being born in the United States.

    Key Details:

    ICE agents executed a 2019 deportation order against the mother, Karen Gutiérrez, 26, who had been living in the US since 2018

    The child had never been to Honduras before and was separated from her life in Austin, Texas, including school, cousins, and teachers

    Mother and daughter were detained for nearly a week in a hotel 80 miles from home without access to a lawyer or hearing before deportation

    The mother had a pending U visa application for domestic violence victims that was still being processed due to severe backlogs

    ICE agents reportedly could not locate the pair in the agency’s database, possibly because they were held in a hotel rather than a detention center

    The mother plans to send Génesis back to the US with another relative so she can continue her life there
    An estimated 5.3 million US citizen children under 18 live with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent in the US

    This case highlights the impact of Trump administration deportation policies on families with US citizen children, raising concerns about procedural violations and the difficult choices families face between staying together or separating to preserve children’s futures in America.

  2. Sufficient-Eye-8883 on

    Americans, sorry to say, but since you are a democracy, this in on you. The racist jokes and the Sieg Heils during the rallies, the fake stories about immigrants eating pets, the fact that you elected him, and that he has 43% approval ratio. It all goes together.

  3. Do you think the deportation of children that are US citizens and the execution of citizens by ICE will be remembered at election time?

  4. “The mother plans to send Génesis back to the US with another relative so she can continue her life there An estimated 5.3 million US citizen children under 18 live with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent in the US”

    The US regime right now: “So you’re saying there’s at least 5.3 million we still have to deport? Challenge accepted”

  5. Don’t forget that all it takes for YOU to be an illegal is the gestapo telling everyone that you are.

  6. This is one of the things I hate most about the situation we find ourselves in. Citizens being detained and deported. But what makes it worse, the rationalizing done by supporters. Constantly it’s “with so many, of course they’ll make a mistake along the way” which is so antithetical to this country. One person being unlawfully detained is bad enough. But that person being deported should be a full stop red line for all. And it’s not. That is just fucking disgraceful.

  7. Why does the media refuse to use the right terminology? You can’t deport a citizen from your own country. She was exiled without due process, aka trafficked.

  8. “The Migration Policy Institute [estimates](https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/mpi-unauthorized-immigrants-fact-sheet-2025_FINAL.pdf) that of the 6.3 million children under the age of 18 living with at least one unauthorised immigrant parent in the US, 5.3 million are US citizens.”

    Whoa. Are they seriously thinking about deporting 5.3M children under the age of 18 to a country they don’t know because of their parent’s status?

  9. CaptainHappen007 on

    You don’t “deport” a U.S. citizen to another country. You kidnap them and traffic them to a foreign country.

  10. Well done Americans who voted for this or opted not to vote. You people are factual pieces of idiot shit.

  11. BigTitsSmallFeetBook on

    Is this where Republican’s are going now to rape kids? I’m just asking questions.

  12. Trafficked. Fucking media needs to use more accurate words. A US citizen or legal resident removed without their consent should be considered trafficked.

  13. It’s taken 8 years to process the mother’s U visa, yet they can detain and deport her in a week?

    USA priorities are capital F fucked.

  14. jello_aka_aron on

    If they are a citizen they cannot be deported. They were kidnapped by the government.

  15. Trump crackdown? Let’s be real, he is Trafficking these children. This child and many others will NEVER be seen again.

  16. ElsewhereExodus on

    Crackdown?! It’s literal abductions. She’s the latest victim of Donald J. Trump’s serial abductions.

  17. If they can execute an American man in broad daylight with bunch of people filming.

    Imagine what they are doing in private

  18. Keep the rage till mid term elections. Let’s make the Republican Party disappear time for a new party that has a soul.

  19. This is why due process exists. This is literally why.

    If this went through the correct process, someone would have caught this. Someone would have said, “Hold up. This little girl was born in the US. Why is she being deported?”

    That’s like the bare minimum here. Their job is literally about figuring out who is legally allowed to live in the US and who isn’t, BEFORE deporting them. The fact they think their job is grab anyone brown and deport them is absolutely absurd. This is Steven Miller’s wet dream come true. I imagine he has to wear a diaper around the office.

  20. VastCapital3773 on

    “I kept telling them ‘the girl was born here’. They didn’t care, they picked up the child, just put a jumper on her and told me to get into the car with her,” Gutiérrez told the Guardian.

    Why the fuck do they think they have authority to touch this kid? Where does that jurisdiction hit?

    That child is a fucking American.

  21. Mother had a pending visa, the child was born in the US.

    Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution directs that all persons born in the United States are U.S. citizens. This child never should have been arrested. She was deported illegally.