Media split on US-born children sent with deported mothers: Bias Breakdown

Welcome to Bias Breakdown. I'm your host, Kara Rucker

Two women from Honduras living in the U.S. illegally were deported last week

With them on their way out were their children, born in the U.S. and therefore American citizens

It's an immigration case garnering a lot of attention and raising legal questions

The media coverage has been divided. Were U.S. citizen children deported by the Trump administration, as you may have read in some news headlines

Or is the media's reporting on who got deported misleading? Left-leaning outlets are emphasizing the advocates who say the children never should have left the U.S

Right-leaning outlets are focusing on the government's position that minors can accompany deported parents if that's their wishes

The case is now moving through the courts. And as it does, different news sources are highlighting the angles that align with their political lean

That's the focus of today's Bias Breakdown. Join Straight Arrow News. See the slant

Avoid the bias. When others skew the facts, we give you the truth down the center

Welcome to Bias Breakdown. First, I'll show you how some of the headlines read from news outlets rated as having a left

or right political bias. The headlines reveal just how differently this case was framed depending on the political lens

And as the story developed, so did the contrasting narrative. First, headlines from outlets on the left, from the Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC

Three U.S. citizens, ages 2, 4, and 7, swiftly deported from Louisiana

Three children who are U.S. citizens, including one with cancer, deported with their mothers, lawyers and advocacy groups say

And four-year-old with cancer, among three American kids, removed from U.S. by ICE, lawyers say

You'll notice in these headlines, news outlets are emphasizing what the migrant attorneys and advocates are saying about the case

Some of the headlines leave out that the children went with their deported mothers

And some are highlighting the child with cancer in its coverage of the immigration case, a detail right-leaning media largely didn't emphasize

Let's compare these headlines to coverage from outlets on the right, like the New York Post, Breitbart, and Daily Caller

Rubio Homan dispute misleading accusations. Trump admin deported kids to parents' country of origin

They went with their mothers. Rubio decries Washington Post misleading headline. Three U.S. citizen children were not deported and just not true

Marco Rubio calls out misleading reports about recent deportations of three U.S. citizen children

The headlines read opposite from left-leaning outlets, emphasizing the Trump administration's response to media reports about the case and dismissing accusations of the children being deported

This is just the beginning of conflicting takeaways. Left and right media in disagreement over whether the kids were deported

There's also conflict over how they interpret the case in a broader picture

Outlets on the left suggest it's an example of due process violations amid mass deportations

While those on the right argue the Trump administration is fulfilling its promise to enforce the law and deport people here illegally Here are examples from news outlets on the left echoing concerns over due process

The Washington Post wrote, the cases have renewed concerns that the Trump administration's

expedited deportations are violating the due process rights of both citizens and non-citizens

the 14th Amendment of automatically granting citizenship to anyone born in the U.S

Backers of his effort believe that ending birthright citizenship will eliminate a key incentive for illegal migrants to enter the U.S

The Daily Caller wrote, Holman said Monday that he is satisfied with the 139,000 deportations

that have occurred thus far since January 20th and praised the record low drop in border encounters since Trump took office

Just one month into Trump's second term, border encounters reached the lowest number since the 1960s

You can see how easy it is for people to be so divided on important issues

The divide in media coverage reflecting the nation's political divide. News outlets emphasizing facts to prop up one side over the other

Building the case as if their viewers are the jury. persuading one way or the other that the Trump administration was right or wrong

over the children leaving the country with their mothers. Now that you've seen conflicting narratives from left and right media

let's get to the facts of the immigration cases. Keep in mind, this is an ongoing legal process

And this is just what we've learned so far from documents available. Two unrelated women from Honduras who court docs say had been living in the U.S. illegally

and were detained by ICE in New Orleans on April 22nd and 24th

One has a two-year-old, the other has a four-year-old and a seven-year-old

Friday, April 25th, both Honduran mothers were deported back to their country with their children

One day before the deportations, one of the family's attorneys filed a petition to the court

for a temporary restraining order to prevent the two-year-old from leaving the U.S

According to an attorney representing the two-year-old American citizen, the child identified as VML has a custodian, Trish Mack, ready and willing to exercise her delegated custodial authority for VML

Ms. Mack is a family friend, her custodian as appointed by VML's father

The family attorney says Melissa Harper, an ICE official, refused to honor a request to release

VML, stating that it was not needed because VML was already with her mother. The ICE official

stated that the father could try to pick her up, but that he would also be taken into custody

Before that order was rolled on the two families left the country Friday April 25th Here what the attorneys for the government said in response to the restraining order filed The mother Ms Lopez made known to ICE officials that she wanted to retain custody of VML

U.S. attorneys saying they have a handwritten letter from Ms. Lopez-Viela with the translation

I, Ginny Carolina Lopez-Viela, will bring my daughter, VML, with me to Honduras

U.S. attorneys say VML is in the custody of her legal custodian, her mother

and say there was no proof of identities provided to ICE from the individuals wanting custody

The government saying the child's mother is the only known legal custodian

who indicated she wanted to retain custody. That day, a judge ruled the administration would need to further explain its course of action

and set a hearing date. Here's what the judge wrote. It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S. citizen

The government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her, but the court doesn't know that

The judge indicated the court requested a phone call, but was told that wasn't possible because the mother, and presumably the child, were released in Honduras

The judge writing, in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just

deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process, it is ordered that the matter be set

for a hearing at 9 a.m. on May 16th. So here you've seen the family attorney's argument

the government's argument, and a judge using language in his order that shows skepticism

over ICE's actions, but requesting a future hearing to understand more details in the case

The case has been front and center in the media since. Whether you can classify the U.S. citizen children as deported or whether they rightfully left with their mothers who were deported is a question being asked to the courts and to Trump officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Borders are Tom Homan on this weekend's NBC and CBS Sunday shows

Three U.S. citizens ages four, seven and two were not deported. their mothers who are illegally in this country were deported

The children went with their mothers. If those children are U.S. citizens, they can come back into the United States

if there's their father or someone here who wants to assume them. But ultimately, who was deported was their mother

their mothers who were here illegally. The children just went with their mothers. But it wasn't like, you guys make it sound like ICE agents

kicked down the door and grabbed the two-year-old and threw him on an airplane. That's misleading. That's just not true

No U.S. citizen child was deported. Deported means you got to be ordered

reported by the immigration judge. We don't report U.S. citizens. The mother was deported along with the children

The children aren't deported. The mother chose to take the children with her. When you enter the country illegally

and you know you're here illegally and you choose to have your assistant child, that's on you

That's not on this administration. If you choose to put your family in that position

that's on them. But having a U.S. citizen child after you enter this country illegally

is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. It doesn't make you immune from our laws

And on the other side of the aisle, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and an ACLU attorney in Louisiana slammed the process

saying the Trump admin is deporting U.S. citizen children and violating due process

What he doing here is just outrageous and against every iota of what Americans believe And this is not the only instance There are reportedly other instances where U citizen children were deported

without any due process. Due process is a hallmark of what our country is all about

rule of law, and ICE, and Trump seemed to break it in every single way

He believes he's a king. He is not. Deportation, Donald, is not allowing any due process

for families in the state of Louisiana or anywhere else in this nation

So I just want to share that families in Louisiana are being disappeared

The conflicting reports and noise in the media over this court case

was the subject of a Tuesday segment on The Breakfast Club, with radio host Charlamagne Tha God criticizing outlets not providing a full picture of the case

and emphasizing one side over the other. I do think when the media has that conversation, we can't rage bait, though, because, you know, every time they say it, they'll be like, oh, a two year old got deported, a three year old got deported

But they're not telling the whole story of their parent was here illegally

And so the parent got deported. And so they sent the child with him. Because when I hear it, I'm like, why the hell would they deport a two year old

Why would they deport some child with cancer? But then there's a whole other story that that goes with it

The only reason I think that, you know, media should be completely honest and tell the whole totality of the story is because that's when people, you know, label things fake news

The media is largely highlighting and reporting the side of the immigration case that aligns with a political narrative

If a viewer or reader was to only get information from a left-leaning source, you may not know the mothers of the children were deported due to not being in the country legally

And ICE officials say the mothers wanted their children to go with them

And if you were to only get information from a right-leaning source, you may not have heard immigration lawyers say family members were trying to transfer custody of at least one U.S. citizen child to someone else so they could stay in the U.S

And a restraining order was filed prior to their flights out. The case is still playing out in the courts, with a hearing scheduled for May 16th

But by the framing of the facts by news outlets on the left and right, a viewer could have been

guided to a conclusion based on the political persuasion of a news outlet. And that's your

bias breakdown. Hey, thanks for watching this week's episode. We're trying to tell news stories

a little differently here by giving you the facts of a story, but also showing where other media may

be missing the mark due to biases seeping into news reporting these days. For more episodes like

this, you can search for bias breakdown wherever you listen to your podcast. Thanks so much for

those of you who have been leaving feedback for the show. As you can probably tell, we're choosing

story topics that are largely controversial and tackling them head on. There's a lot of information

in this case, just as last week's episode over Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I didn't get to all the

details again here, but hopefully covered the ones that told a full enough picture while the case

continues to play out. I'm linking all official original court documents I've got to our news

article for you to review for yourself if you'd like to. Thanks so much to Ian Kennedy, our video

editor, and Allie Caldwell on our graphics. And thank you for watching Bias Breakdown. I'll see

you next time