Letter to the editor: Child wasn’t deported

OPINION:

In a short recent article in the Times (“Judge demands answers after 2-year-old U.S. citizen is deported,” Web, April 26 ), we learn that a federal judge “bashed” the Trump administration for a possible deportation of a 2-year-old American citizen. The toddler left the United States with her non-citizen mother, who was being deported.  

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it was the mother’s decision, not the government’s demand, that removed the child, so the child was not deported by the United States. He’s right, but the difference between the status of mother and child goes beyond that.  When the child is old enough to make her own decisions, she will be an American citizen who can freely enter the United States and enjoy all the benefits of American citizenship. As a practical matter she is not being forced from the United States, but is merely taking an extended vacation to a foreign land.

JIM DUEHOLM

Washington