The revelation came from a roadway marker that unveiled their ultimate location: Alexandria, Louisiana.
They were transported in the back of an government transport – their personal belongings confiscated and travel documents held by agents. Rosario and her two children with citizenship, including a child who battles metastatic kidney disease, remained unaware about where federal agents were transporting them.
The initial encounter
The household had been detained at an immigration check-in near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from consulting their attorney, which they would subsequently allege in legal documents ignored legal protections, the family was moved 200 miles to this modest settlement in the state's interior.
"Our location remained undisclosed," she recounted, responding to questions about her experience for the initial occasion after her family's case received coverage. "They instructed me that I shouldn't inquire, I questioned our location, but they offered no answer."
The deportation procedure
Rosario, 25, and her two children were forcibly removed to Honduras in the early morning hours the following day, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for extensive immigration enforcement. The site houses a specialized holding facility that has been described as a legal "vacuum" by attorneys with detained individuals, and it opens immediately onto an runway area.
While the detention facility holds exclusively male adults, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have been processed at the Alexandria airport on federal aircraft during the initial three months of the current administration. Various detainees, like Rosario, are held in undisclosed hotels before being sent abroad or transferred to other detention sites.
Hotel detention
Rosario could not recall which Alexandria hotel her family was brought to. "I recall we came in through a parking area, not the front door," she recalled.
"We felt like detainees in lodging," Rosario said, noting: "The young ones would attempt to approach the door, and the security personnel would get mad."
Treatment disruptions
The mother's young boy Romeo was found to have 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 detention by authorities. His sister, Ruby, also a US citizen, was seven when she was taken into custody with her family members.
Rosario "implored" guards at the hotel to permit utilization of a telephone the night the family was there, she stated in official complaints. She was finally allowed one short conversation to her father and informed him she was in Alexandria.
The overnight search
The family was awakened at 2 a.m. the subsequent day, Rosario said, and transported immediately to the airport in a government vehicle with additional detainees also detained at the hotel.
Unbeknownst to the mother, her attorneys and representatives had searched throughout the night to find where the two families had been kept, in an attempt to obtain legal assistance. But they were not located. The legal representatives had made repeated requests to immigration authorities right after the detention to stop the transfer and find her position. They had been regularly overlooked, according to official records.
"The Louisiana location is itself fundamentally opaque," said an immigration advocate, who is providing legal counsel in ongoing litigation. "Yet with cases involving families, they will typically not transport them to the primary location, but place them in undisclosed hotel rooms close by.
Court claims
At the core of the litigation filed on behalf of Rosario and other individuals is the allegation that government entities have breached internal policies governing the care for US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The policies state that authorities "must provide" parents "a reasonable opportunity" to make determinations concerning the "welfare or movement" of their young offspring.
Government agencies have not yet responded to Rosario's claims in court. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to detailed questions about the claims.
The airport experience
"Upon reaching the location, it was a largely vacant terminal," Rosario recalled. "Just immigration transports were arriving."
"There were multiple vans with more detainees," she said.
They were confined to the transport at the airport for four and a half hours, watching other transports come with men chained at their hands and feet.
"That portion was upsetting," she said. "My children kept asking why everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were criminals. I told them it was just normal protocol."
The plane journey
The family was then forced onto an aircraft, legal documents state. At around this period, according to documents, an immigration regional supervisor ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – telling them a stay of removal had been rejected. Rosario said she had not consented at any point for her two citizen minors to be removed to Honduras.
Legal representatives said the scheduling of the apprehension may not have been random. They said the appointment – rescheduled three times without explanation – may have been timed to coincide with a deportation flight to Honduras the next day.
"Officials apparently channel as many individuals as they can toward that facility so they can populate the aircraft and deport them," commented a legal advocate.
The ongoing impact
The entire experience has resulted in lasting consequences, according to the lawsuit. Rosario continues to live with anxiety regarding threats and abduction in Honduras.
In a earlier communication, the federal agency asserted that Rosario "elected" to bring her children to the immigration check-in in April, and was inquired whether she preferred authorities to place the children with someone secure. The agency also stated that Rosario elected departure with her children.
Ruby, who was couldn't finish her academic term in the US, is at risk of "academic regression" and is "undergoing serious emotional difficulties", according to the legal proceedings.
Romeo, who has now reached five years, was unable to access vital and necessary medical treatment in Honduras. He temporarily visited the US, without his mother, to proceed with therapy.
"Romeo's deteriorating health and the disruption to his treatment have caused Rosario significant distress and psychological pain," the legal action alleges.
*Names of individuals have been altered.
