Judge reopens case of 11-year-old Houston girl facing deportation to El Salvador

HOUSTON — A judge has reopened the case of an 11-year-old girl facing possible deportation from Houston to El Salvador alone, without the company of her mother or sisters.

Laura Maradiago and her family have been stateside for a little less than a year after escaping violence in El Salvador. The girl's father and other family members were murdered there.

FIEL, a local immigration rights organization, said Maradiago received a deportation notice because of a mistake in the court system. The family has reportedly been to all of their court appearances, however, a recent appointment was rescheduled because of the government shutdown.

Immigration attorney Sylvia Mintz said the family has done its due diligence and the whole ordeal is because of a clerical error, reflecting a larger problem in the country's immigration process.

"It happens because the immigration courts are overloaded," Mintz said during a press conference Tuesday. "They have so many cases [that] judges, according to some studies, have two minutes per case. Who can get due process in two minutes in front of the court?"