According to a lawsuit brought on behalf of the families, three children—a 4-year-old boy with Stage 4 kidney cancer, his 7-year-old sister, and a 2-year-old girl—were swiftly deported to Honduras by immigration officials in Louisiana, despite being citizens of the United States.
According to the lawsuit, parents were not allowed to contact their attorneys or make meaningful contact with their families to make arrangements for their children’s care, and they were never given the option to decide whether their children should be deported with them, even though the government had issued directions to that effect. According to the lawsuit, the mothers, Rosario and Julia, claimed they wanted their kids to stay in the United States.
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According to the lawsuit, the families were unlawfully deported without even the barest minimum of due process.
Romeo, the child named in the case who is now five years old, was diagnosed at age two with a rare and aggressive form of kidney cancer. The case, filed by three law firms and the immigrant advocacy group National Immigration Project, claims that he immediately started getting life-saving, urgent medical treatment in the United States.
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According to the lawsuit, his unlawful repatriation to Honduras and the refusal to let his mother make arrangements for his care—against ICE’s own directive—hindered his access to necessary medical care.
On July 31, the lawsuit was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana on behalf of the two moms and their kids. According to lawyers, the plaintiffs’ names in the case are pseudonyms to safeguard their safety and identity. Plaintiffs in the early phases of the case against the federal government are requesting damages, a jury trial, and the declaration that their arrests and removals were illegal and that they be allowed to return to the United States.
According to Stephanie Alvarez-Jones, an attorney with the National Immigration Project, this is representative of what happens when the government is intent on deportations; when the ultimate goal is all that matters, you will wind up with wrongful and unlawful deportations, she told NBC News.
In a response, the Department of Homeland Security refuted that parents were not given a choice in their children’s care prior to their transfer to Honduras and stated that American children were not being deported.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated that instead of separating their families, ICE asked the women if they wanted to be taken with their children or if they wanted ICE to leave the children with a parent designate who is safe. In this particular case, the parents decided to return to Honduras with their kids.
According to McLaughlin, ICE ensures that treatment is accessible in the nation where the illegal alien is being deported when there is an underlying medical condition. It is blatantly untrue and disrespectful to the men and women of federal law enforcement to suggest that ICE would refuse a kid the medical attention they require.
A 10-year-old girl recuperating from a rare brain tumor was flown to Mexico, according to NBC News’s earlier reports on U.S. citizen children being moved abroad with their deported immigrant parents.
According to the lawsuit, Rosario and Julia were detained at immigration check-in appointments and instructed to bring their passports and children who were U.S. citizens. On April 25, they were placed on an aircraft bound for Honduras.
According to the lawsuit, both women had relocated to the United States a few years prior. Rosario arrived in the United States as an unaccompanied kid in 2013 at the age of 13. Romeo, her second kid, was born in 2020 after Ruby, her first, was born in New Orleans in 2018.
Rosario alleges in the lawsuit that she was unaware that she was the subject of an immigration case when she was in the United States. She claimed that it wasn’t until she was placed under ICE detention during a traffic check in February that she discovered she had a removal order that went back ten years.
According to the lawsuit, the mother of two received an ankle monitor and was checked in with ICE at their local office as well as at home.
As instructed by ICE, Rosario arrived at her immigration check-in on April 24 with her children, lawyer, and passports. The lawsuit claims that during the visit, Rosario and her kids were led to a back room without their lawyer and informed that they would be deported.
Rosario apparently refused when ICE asked her to sign a form without explaining what it meant. Her requests to discuss Romeo’s condition with her lawyer were allegedly turned down by agents.
Then her lawyer found out that the family had been moved three hours away to a facility in Alexandria, Louisiana. With proof of Romeo’s Stage 4 cancer diagnosis, the lawyer requested a stay of removal for Rosario’s family.
The following day, the family boarded a plane.
The lawsuit claims that Rosario had never given her approval for the deportation of her U.S. citizen children and had expressly rejected it. In fact, Rosario wanted both of her U.S.-citizen children to stay in the country due to Romeo’s disease and particular medical requirements.
According to the lawsuit, Julia was denied legal representation when she and her children were held by ICE and deported, much like Rosario.
According to the lawsuit’s details, Julia first came to the U.S. border in 2019 after her daughter Janelle was abducted in Honduras. Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy at the time required them to wait in Mexico after submitting an asylum application. Before they could travel to the United States in August 2021, they claimed in the lawsuit that they had been abducted in Mexico.
In 2023, Jade, her daughter, was born in Louisiana.
According to the lawsuit, Julia was instructed to start bringing both of her girls to her routine ICE check-ins in February 2025.
While her partner waited outside, Julia, who was now pregnant, went to a check-in with her daughters on April 22. According to the lawsuit, she claimed she was informed that her family was being sent to Alexandria and that a judge would decide their fate in the United States. Her spouse claims he was not given time to talk to Julia and that he was informed his family was transferred hours later.
Julia was informed later that evening that she and her kids would be deported.
ICE apparently informed her lawyer that Jacob, Julia’s partner and an immigrant, would also be held if he tried to pick up his U.S.-citizen daughter Jade.
An ICE officer allegedly instructed Julia to write on a piece of paper that her daughter Jade would accompany her to Honduras while Jacob and the family lawyer battled to temporarily halt the removal of Julia and her children.
According to the lawsuit, the officer threatened to send Jade to a foster home in the United States right away if Julia didn’t write a note claiming that Jade would be deported to Honduras with her. Julia complied under duress, the officer said.
Julia was never given the chance to make arrangements for her daughter Jade, a U.S. citizen, to be cared for in the country.
In a statement to NBC News, DHS stated that it takes its duty to safeguard children seriously and will keep collaborating with federal law enforcement to make sure that kids are safe. Parents can take charge of their departure by self-deporting, according to the agency.
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On April 25, Julia and her kids were transported to Honduras on the same aircraft as Rosario’s family.
In a statement, Rosario said that she does not have the means to provide her children with the care they require in Honduras.
My kid has been ill and experiencing anxiety since coming back, and I’ve also been dealing with health problems of my own, she said.
In a statement, Julia said that she was misled into believing that she and her kids were heading to a routine visit. She remarked, “I never thought they would send me and my kids to Honduras.”
“Leaving my husband behind to return to Honduras has been really difficult,” she added. We were denied the chance to act as a family and make choices together.
