A five-year-old US citizen has been deported to Honduras alongside her mother, despite the child having never lived in the Central American country. Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos was removed from the United States on 11 January with her mother, Karen Guadalupe Gutiérrez Castellanos, who had an outstanding deportation order from 2019.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained the pair in Austin, Texas, after responding to a domestic disturbance call. The mother, who had applied for a U visa for victims of domestic violence, was held with her daughter in a hotel for nearly a week without access to a lawyer or a hearing. Activists say the case highlights procedural violations and parallels other recent child detentions under the Trump administration.
Gutiérrez, who left Honduras in 2018, said she separated from Génesis's father after abuse and applied for a U visa, which remains pending due to severe backlogs. She described a stable life in Austin but lived in fear of ICE raids. After her arrest, an immigration attorney could not locate the pair in ICE's database, a tactic critics say undermines due process.
Since arriving in Honduras, Gutiérrez has decided to send Génesis back to the US with a relative, as the child's life and education are in Texas. “The day I separate from my daughter will be the most painful of my life, but I will do it for her future,” she said, vowing to continue fighting for her own return.
