The headline of this story certainly describes an awful situation: A 5-year-old faces deportation back to El Salvador without her parents.

But the more I read the story, the more confused I got: Why isn't the mother, apparently also here illegally, facing a similar hearing with her child? If the kid is deported, will she stay with the same folks that presumably watched over her when the mother left her behind? And back to the mother: What's her status, exactly? And surely she could have described what led her to the decision to try to join her husband up here while leaving a 5-year-old behind - if the reporter had asked.