Judge: Honduran mother can't be deported without daughter

Source: Associated Press


Nomaan Merchant, Associated Press
Updated 6:34 pm CST, Monday, December 24, 2018

HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Monday ordered the U.S. government not to deport a Honduran woman, whose lawyers worry about her being separated from her 15-year-old daughter who has been detained with her for six months.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss issued the temporary restraining order at the request of the woman's lawyers, who feared U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement might deport her before they could appeal after Christmas and leave the teenager alone in government custody.

The lawyers say the woman and her daughter came to the U.S. two years ago after gang members in Honduras held them at gunpoint and demanded they pay protection money.

The mother and daughter are detained together at the family detention center in the South Texas city of Dilley. While the daughter has a case for asylum pending, an immigration judge on Friday denied the mother's request to reopen her immigration case.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Judge-Honduran-mother-can-t-be-deported-without-13489166.php