🔗 Share this article 'Our destination remained a mystery': one family's journey into the state of'legal void' of removal It was a interstate indicator that revealed their final destination: Alexandria, Louisiana. They were transported in the cargo area of an government transport – their possessions confiscated and identification not returned. Rosario and her two children with citizenship, one of whom is fighting advanced renal cancer, lacked information about where authorities were taking them. The apprehension The family unit had been apprehended at an immigration check-in near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from speaking with their lawyer, which they would subsequently allege in legal documents breached due process, the family was moved 200 miles to this modest settlement in central Louisiana. "I received no information about our destination," she recounted, providing details about her experience for the initial occasion after her family's case received coverage. "They instructed me that I must not seek information, I questioned our location, but they didn't respond." The deportation procedure The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her two children were forcibly removed to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the next day, from a small aviation facility in Alexandria that has become a center for mass deportation operations. The site houses a unique detention center that has been called a legal "black hole" by attorneys with detained individuals, and it connects directly onto an flight line. While the holding center contains solely adult male detainees, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 females and minors have been processed at the Alexandria airport on federal aircraft during the opening period of the present government. Various detainees, like Rosario, are detained at secret lodging before being deported or transferred to other holding facilities. Temporary confinement Rosario could not recall which Alexandria hotel her family was directed toward. "My recollection is we accessed via a garage entrance, not the primary access," she stated. "Our situation resembled prisoners in a room," Rosario said, noting: "The young ones would try to go toward the door, and the women officers would show irritation." Health issues The mother's child Romeo was diagnosed with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had metastasized to his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital cancer care" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his arrest. His female sibling, Ruby, also a American national, was seven when she was detained with her family members. Rosario "begged" guards at the hotel to grant access to a telephone the night the family was there, she reported in official complaints. She was finally allowed one short conversation to her father and notified him she was in Alexandria. The overnight search The family was woken up at 2 a.m. the next morning, Rosario said, and taken directly to the airport in a van with additional detainees also held at the hotel. Unbeknownst to the mother, her lawyers and supporters had conducted overnight searches to locate where the two families had been kept, in an effort to secure legal action. But they could not be found. The legal representatives had made repeated requests to immigration authorities immediately after the arrest to prevent removal and determine her location. They had been repeatedly ignored, according to court documents. "The Louisiana location is itself essentially a void," said an expert, who is providing legal counsel in active court cases. "However, when dealing involving families, they will typically not transport them to the primary location, but put them in secret lodging in proximity. Court claims At the heart of the legal action filed on behalf of Rosario and another family is the claim that federal agencies have violated their own regulations governing the handling of US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The directives state that authorities "are required to grant" parents "sufficient time" to make choices about the "care or travel" of their underage dependents. Immigration officials have not yet answered Rosario's legal assertions. The government agency did not respond to comprehensive queries about the allegations. The aviation facility incident "When we arrived, it was a very empty airport," Rosario recalled. "Exclusively removal vans were coming in." "There were multiple vans with additional families," she said. They were held in the vehicle at the airport for over four hours, watching other transports come with men shackled at their wrists and ankles. "That experience was upsetting," she said. "My children kept inquiring about everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were bad people. I said it was just standard procedure." The plane journey The family was then compelled to board an aircraft, official records state. At roughly then, according to filings, an immigration field office director finally replied to Rosario's attorney – notifying them a stay of removal had been rejected. Rosario said she had not provided approval for her two American-born offspring to be deported abroad. Legal representatives said the timing of the arrests may not have been accidental. They said the meeting – changed multiple times without justification – may have been scheduled to align with a deportation flight to Honduras the next day. "They seem to direct as many cases as they can toward that facility so they can occupy the plane and send them out," commented a legal advocate. The consequences The complete ordeal has caused irreparable harm, according to the legal action. Rosario still experiences fear of extortion and kidnapping in Honduras. In a earlier communication, the government department stated that Rosario "decided" to bring her children to the federal appointment in April, and was inquired whether she preferred authorities to place the children with someone protected. The department also stated that Rosario chose to be deported with her children. Ruby, who was unable to complete her school year in the US, is at risk of "academic regression" and is "undergoing serious mental health issues", according to the court documents. Romeo, who has now become five years old, was could not obtain critical and essential medical treatment in Honduras. He briefly returned to the US, without his mother, to continue treatment. "Romeo's deteriorating health and the disruption to his treatment have created for the mother tremendous anxiety and psychological pain," the lawsuit claims. *Names of people involved have been modified.