🔗 Share this article

The revelation came from a interstate indicator that disclosed their ultimate location: Alexandria, Louisiana.

Their journey continued in the rear compartment of an government transport – their items taken and passports not returned. Rosario and her two American-born children, one of whom faces metastatic kidney disease, remained unaware about where federal agents were directing them.

The apprehension

The family members had been apprehended at an immigration check-in near New Orleans on April 24. Following restrictions from speaking with their lawyer, which they would later claim in legal documents breached due process, the family was transported 200 miles to this rural town in the heart of the region.

"Our location remained undisclosed," she recounted, responding to questions about her situation for the first time after her family's case became public. "Authorities directed that I shouldn't inquire, I inquired about our destination, but they didn't respond."

The deportation procedure

The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her minor children were compulsorily transported to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the subsequent morning, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has become a center for extensive immigration enforcement. The facility houses a unique detention center that has been referred to as a legal "void" by lawyers with people held there, and it leads straight onto an flight line.

While the holding center accommodates only adult male detainees, confidential information indicate at least 3,142 women and children have been processed at the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the first 100 days of the present government. Some individuals, like Rosario, are held in secret lodging before being sent abroad or moved to other detention sites.

Lodging restrictions

She was unable to identify which Alexandria hotel her family was taken to. "I recall we came in through a garage entrance, not the front door," she stated.

"We were treated like prisoners in a room," Rosario said, explaining: "The young ones would attempt to approach the door, and the security personnel would get mad."

Health issues

The mother's young boy Romeo was found to have metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "ongoing and essential medical intervention" at a children's healthcare facility in New Orleans before his detention by authorities. His female sibling, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was detained with her family members.

Rosario "begged" guards at the hotel to permit utilization of a telephone the night the family was there, she claimed in legal filings. She was ultimately granted one short conversation to her father and told him she was in Alexandria.

The after-hours locating effort

The family was woken up at 2 a.m. the next morning, Rosario said, and transported immediately to the airport in a van with additional detainees also detained at the hotel.

Unknown to Rosario, her attorneys and supporters had looked extensively after hours to identify where the two families had been detained, in an effort to secure legal action. But they remained undiscovered. The lawyers had made numerous petitions to immigration authorities right after the detention to block the deportation and establish her whereabouts. They had been regularly overlooked, according to official records.

"The Alexandria staging facility is itself essentially a void," said a legal representative, who is representing Rosario in current legal proceedings. "However, when dealing involving families, they will often not take them to the facility itself, but accommodate them at unidentified accommodations close by.

Legal arguments

At the heart of the legal action filed on behalf of Rosario and other individuals is the claim that immigration authorities have violated their own regulations governing the care for US citizen children with parents facing removal. The policies state that authorities "are required to grant" parents "adequate chance" to make determinations concerning the "wellbeing or relocation" of their underage dependents.

Immigration officials have not yet addressed Rosario's legal assertions. The Department of Homeland Security did not address comprehensive queries about the claims.

The terminal ordeal

"Once we got there, it was a largely vacant terminal," Rosario remembered. "Exclusively removal vans were arriving."

"Several vehicles were present with other mothers and children," she said.

They were kept in the van at the airport for an extended period, watching other transports come with men chained at their hands and feet.

"That segment was traumatic," she said. "My children kept inquiring about everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were criminals. I said it was just standard procedure."

The aircraft boarding

The family was then made to enter an aircraft, court filings state. At around this period, according to records, an immigration local official finally replied to Rosario's attorney – telling them a stay of removal had been rejected. Rosario said she had not provided approval for her two citizen minors to be sent to another country.

Advocates said the date of the detention may not have been accidental. They said the check-in – postponed repeatedly without explanation – may have been timed to coincide with a transport plane to Honduras the subsequent day.

"They seem to direct as many cases as they can toward that airport so they can occupy the plane and deport them," stated a attorney.

The consequences

The whole situation has led to permanent damage, according to the lawsuit. Rosario still experiences concerns about exploitation and abduction in Honduras.

In a previously released statement, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Rosario "decided" to bring her children to the immigration check-in in April, and was inquired whether she preferred authorities to relocate the minors with someone secure. The organization also asserted that Rosario decided on removal with her children.

Ruby, who was didn't complete her school year in the US, is at risk of "educational decline" and is "facing substantial psychological challenges", according to the litigation.

Romeo, who has now turned five, was denied critical and essential healthcare in Honduras. He made a short trip to the US, without his mother, to proceed with therapy.

"The child's declining condition and the interruption of his care have caused Rosario significant distress and mental suffering," the court documents state.

*Names of people involved have been altered.