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A Texas child and U.S. citizen being treated for brain cancer has been deported to Mexico along with her undocumented parents.
The parents of the 10-year-old girl are now desperate to return to the U.S. to continue her treatment, after immigration enforcement removed the child and four of her U.S.-born siblings from Texas on February 4, according to NBC News.
The family was traveling from their home in Rio Grande to Houston for an emergency medical check last month when they were stopped at an immigration checkpoint. They’d visited the specialists five other times without problems, lawyer Danny Woodward, who is representing the family with the Texas Civil Rights Project, told NBC.
Previously, the parents had shown letters from physicians and attorneys to get past the checkpoint. However, last month, the letters weren’t enough to get them through, and they were detained when the parents couldn’t show legal immigration documentation. The mother told NBC that she attempted to explain her daughter’s situation to the officers, but “they weren’t interested in hearing that.”
Woodward told the network that the parents don’t have a criminal history apart from not having “valid immigration status.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection deported the family, their attorney said.
“For privacy reasons, we do not comment on individual cases,” the agency told NBC.
While the little girl has already undergone surgery to remove the cancerous brain tumor, she is still suffering from swelling on the brain, leaving her with speech and mobility challenges, her mother said. As a result, doctors were still checking her condition on a regular basis before the family’s deportation. She was also taking medication to stop convulsions.
Four of the family’s five children were born in the U.S. The parents came to the U.S. from Mexico in 2013 and settled in Texas with the hope for a better future. The couple has a son, aged 17, who remains in Texas.
The mother told NBC that they were taken to a detention center after their apprehension, where the mother and daughters were separated from the father and sons.
“The fear is horrible. I almost can’t explain it, but it’s something frustrating, very tough, something you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” she told the network.
After several hours, the family was put in a van and let off on the Mexican side of a Texas bridge, after which they spent a week in a shelter in the area. They have been able to move into a house, and the mother said they have safety concerns, which makes it difficult to sleep. The children haven’t been able to attend school.
The president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, Rochelle Garza, told NBC that the case is a “tragedy” but that it’s not “isolated to just them.” She charged that it was “part of a pattern in practice” for the Trump administration.
Trump border czar Tom Homan has said that “families can be deported together” regardless of their immigration status. He added that it would be their parents’ choice to leave their children in the U.S. or bring them along as they depart the U.S.
Parents without proper immigration documentation may lose custody of their children born in the U.S. if they’re apprehended by authorities. If they don’t have a power-of-attorney document or guardianship showing who will take care of the children, they will enter the U.S. foster care system, which makes it more difficult for the parents to get custody of their children in the future.
So far, the cancer-stricken 10-year-old and her 15-year-old brother, who has a heart condition, haven’t been receiving the care they need in Mexico, their mother said.
“The authorities have my children’s lives in their hands,” she tearfully told NBC.
