Six-Year-Old Girl Deported from New York to Ecuador Becomes the Youngest Immigrant Expelled

• Six-year-old girl deported
• ICE expels mother and daughter
• Outrage grows over deportations

According to EFE, a story that reflects the harshness of U.S. immigration policy has shaken the immigrant community in New York.

Martha, an Ecuadorian mother, was detained last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers after attending a routine hearing at the immigration court in Manhattan.

With her were two of her children, including her little girl of just six years old, who has now become the youngest deportee sent from U.S. soil to Ecuador.

The woman and her youngest daughter were transferred to the detention center in Dilley, Texas, while her son Manuel, 19 years old and a recent high school graduate, was sent to Delaney Hall in New Jersey.

An Unexpected Arrest in New York of Six-Year-Old and Her Mother

#World | Outrage in New York: ICE detains six-year-old Ecuadorian girl. https://t.co/NxYjAyf2yw

— Revista Semana (@RevistaSemana) August 19, 2025

According to The City, ICE deported Martha and her daughter on Tuesday, in a case that has sparked outrage inside and outside the immigrant community.

State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz confirmed the news, noting that the little girl is already the fourth public school student arrested for immigration reasons in New York in recent months.

The arrest not only left a mother separated from her older children, but also exposed the fragility of entire families facing a system that many describe as dehumanizing.

Martha’s eldest son, 21, was left caring for his 16-year-old brother.

The Fragmented Family

In statements to CBS, he revealed that his mother feared attending immigration court because arrests by ICE had become routine there.

Human rights organizations have denounced these operations, which occur on the 10th floor of Federal Plaza in Manhattan.

Several immigrants detained in that same location recently filed a lawsuit against ICE, pointing to “inhumane and unsanitary” conditions inside the facilities.

Martha and her daughter’s case is just one example of what hundreds of families face when they go to court seeking to resolve their legal status and instead find themselves trapped in deportation proceedings.

Reactions and Criticism of ICE Operations

New York Governor Kathy Hochul was quick to respond.

She labeled ICE’s action “cruel and unjust,” recalling that President Trump’s administration had promised to focus on “the worst of the worst.”

“If a six-year-old girl is what President Trump considers ‘the worst of the worst,’ then that promise was a lie from the very beginning,” Hochul said in remarks reported by The City.

The number of children affected continues to grow.

According to ICE data, just in June and July the New York office arrested 48 children.

Impact on the Immigrant Community

ICE has already deported 32 from that group, underscoring the scale of a phenomenon that directly impacts the school and emotional lives of hundreds of families.

The expulsion of Martha and her daughter adds to a series of measures that have placed the immigrant community in the city under severe pressure, sparking protests and calls to review the immigration system.

The case of the six-year-old deported girl is not just another statistic. It represents the vulnerability of children and the lack of humanitarian consideration in deportation processes.

Pro-immigrant organizations have denounced that these detentions severely undermine family stability, breaking bonds and leaving young people without their parents in the United States.

The news has also resonated in public schools, where immigrant students are numerous and where each arrest leaves a deep void among classmates and teachers.

Meanwhile, the Ecuadorian community in New York—one of the largest—lives in fear that stories like Martha’s will repeat themselves in other families.

The case highlights the contradiction between the promise of an immigration policy focused on dangerous criminals and the reality of children and mothers who end up as the main victims of deportations.

The image of a six-year-old girl deported to Ecuador symbolizes the cruelty of a system that many consider broken and that continues to leave painful scars in the lives of immigrants in the United States.