🔗 Share this article 'They never told me where I was going': one family's journey into the state of'legal void' of removal The revelation came from a interstate indicator that revealed their ultimate location: Alexandria, Louisiana. They traveled in the rear compartment of an federal transport truck – their possessions confiscated and passports not returned. The mother and her two children with citizenship, one of whom battles stage 4 kidney cancer, lacked information about where immigration officials were directing them. The apprehension The family unit had been taken into custody at an federal appointment near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from speaking with their lawyer, which they would later claim in official complaints ignored legal protections, the family was relocated 200 miles to this small community in the state's interior. "They never told me where I was going," Rosario stated, providing details about her situation for the initial occasion after her family's case received coverage. "Authorities directed that I couldn't ask questions, I inquired about our destination, but they didn't respond." The deportation procedure The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her young offspring were forcibly removed to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the subsequent morning, from a regional airfield in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for mass deportation operations. The site houses a unique detention center that has been referred to as a legal "vacuum" by legal representatives with clients inside, and it leads straight onto an flight line. While the confinement area holds exclusively adult male detainees, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 females and minors have passed through the Alexandria airport on government charter flights during the first 100 days of the existing leadership. Various detainees, like Rosario, are detained at unidentified accommodations before being removed from the country or relocated to other holding facilities. Temporary confinement Rosario could not recall which Alexandria hotel her family was directed toward. "I just remember we came in through a parking area, not the front door," she stated. "We felt like prisoners in a room," Rosario said, noting: "My kids would move closer to the door, and the women officers would get mad." Health issues Rosario's child Romeo was identified with metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had metastasized to his lungs, and was receiving "regular and critical life-saving cancer treatment" at a specialized children's hospital in New Orleans before his detention by authorities. His female sibling, Ruby, also a US citizen, was seven when she was taken into custody with her relatives. Rosario "implored" guards at the hotel to grant access to a telephone the night the family was there, she claimed in legal filings. She was finally allowed one limited communication to her father and informed him she was in Alexandria. The nighttime investigation The family was roused at 2 a.m. the following morning, Rosario said, and taken directly to the airport in a government vehicle with another family also held at the hotel. Without her knowledge, her attorneys and supporters had searched throughout the night to find where the two families had been detained, in an attempt to obtain legal intervention. But they could not be found. The attorneys had made numerous petitions to immigration authorities immediately after the apprehension to stop the transfer and determine her location. They had been regularly overlooked, according to legal filings. "The Louisiana location is itself fundamentally opaque," said a legal representative, who is handling the case in current legal proceedings. "But in situations involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the main center, but accommodate them at undisclosed hotel rooms near the facility. Judicial contentions At the center of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Rosario and additional plaintiffs is the allegation that immigration authorities have violated their own regulations governing the care for US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The policies state that authorities "are required to grant" parents "adequate chance" to make decisions regarding the "welfare or movement" of their minor children. Immigration officials have not yet answered Rosario's allegations legally. The government agency did not address detailed questions about the claims. The terminal ordeal "When we arrived, it was a largely vacant terminal," Rosario recalled. "Only deportation vehicles were pulling up." "Numerous transports appeared with additional families," she said. They were confined to the transport at the airport for an extended period, seeing other transports come with men shackled at their limbs. "That experience was traumatic," she said. "The kids kept questioning why everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were bad people. I said it was just standard procedure." The flight departure The family was then forced onto an aircraft, court filings state. At around this period, according to filings, an immigration local official ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – telling them a removal halt had been denied. Rosario said she had not consented at any point for her two citizen minors to be deported abroad. Advocates said the scheduling of the apprehension may not have been random. They said the appointment – changed multiple times without reason – may have been arranged to match with a removal aircraft to Honduras the next day. "Authorities appear to funnel as many individuals as they can toward that location so they can populate the aircraft and deport them," commented a attorney. The ongoing impact The complete ordeal has caused irreparable harm, according to the legal action. Rosario persistently faces fear of extortion and kidnapping in Honduras. In a prior announcement, the government department claimed that Rosario "chose" to bring her children to the federal appointment in April, and was questioned about authorities to assign the kids with someone secure. The department also stated that Rosario elected departure with her children. Ruby, who was couldn't finish her educational period in the US, is at risk of "educational decline" and is "undergoing serious psychological challenges", according to the court documents. Romeo, who has now turned five, was unable to access specialized and life-saving medical care in Honduras. He briefly returned to the US, without his mother, to resume care. "The boy's worsening medical status and the disruption to his treatment have created for the mother substantial worry and mental suffering," the lawsuit claims. *Names of family members have been modified.