'I was never informed of our destination': a family's descent into Louisiana's'black hole' of deportation

The revelation came from a interstate indicator that unveiled their final destination: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They were transported in the rear compartment of an government transport – their items confiscated and passports not returned. The mother and her two children with citizenship, one of whom is fighting stage 4 kidney cancer, lacked information about where authorities were taking them.

The initial encounter

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 later claim in legal documents breached due process, the family was moved 200 miles to this rural town in the state's interior.

"They never told me where I was going," she recounted, responding to questions about her experience for the initial occasion after her family's case gained attention. "They instructed me that I must not seek information, I asked where we were headed, but they offered no answer."

The removal process

Rosario, 25, and her two children were involuntarily deported to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the subsequent morning, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has emerged as a hub for large-scale removal programs. The location houses a unique detention center that has been referred to as a legal "void" by attorneys with detained individuals, and it connects directly onto an flight line.

While the holding center holds exclusively male adults, obtained records indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have traveled via the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the first 100 days of the current administration. Some individuals, like Rosario, are confined to unidentified accommodations before being deported or relocated to other confinement locations.

Hotel detention

Rosario could not recall which Alexandria hotel her family was directed toward. "I recall we accessed via a garage entrance, not the main entrance," she stated.

"Our situation resembled prisoners in a room," Rosario said, noting: "The children would attempt to approach the door, and the women officers would show irritation."

Treatment disruptions

Rosario's young boy Romeo was identified with metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital life-saving cancer treatment" at a specialized children's hospital in New Orleans before his detention by authorities. His sister, Ruby, also a US citizen, was seven when she was apprehended with her family members.

Rosario "begged" guards at the hotel to allow her to use a telephone the night the family was there, she claimed in federal court documents. She was ultimately granted one short conversation to her father and notified him she was in Alexandria.

The after-hours locating effort

The family was woken up at 2 a.m. the next morning, Rosario said, and brought straight to the airport in a transport vehicle with additional detainees also confined in the hotel.

Unknown to Rosario, her legal team and supporters had searched throughout the night to find where the two families had been kept, in an bid for legal assistance. But they remained undiscovered. The legal representatives had made repeated requests to immigration authorities right after the arrest to prevent removal and find her position. They had been regularly overlooked, according to official records.

"This processing center is itself essentially a void," said a legal representative, who is representing Rosario in current legal proceedings. "Yet with cases involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the primary location, but accommodate them at undisclosed hotel rooms near the facility.

Court claims

At the heart of the legal action filed on behalf of Rosario and additional plaintiffs is the allegation that immigration authorities have ignored established rules governing the care for US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The policies state that authorities "must provide" parents "adequate chance" to make determinations concerning the "care or travel" of their underage dependents.

Federal authorities have not yet answered Rosario's claims in court. The federal department did not address detailed questions about the claims.

The airport experience

"Upon reaching the location, it was a mostly deserted facility," Rosario remembered. "Exclusively removal vans were arriving."

"There were multiple vans with other mothers and children," she said.

They were kept in the van at the airport for four and a half hours, observing other transports come with men restrained at their hands and feet.

"That experience was distressing," she said. "My children kept asking why everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were criminals. I told them it was just standard procedure."

The plane journey

The family was then made to enter an aircraft, official records state. At roughly then, according to records, an immigration regional supervisor ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – notifying them a stay of removal had been denied. Rosario said she had not provided approval for her two US citizen children to be deported abroad.

Attorneys said the date of the detention may not have been random. They said the meeting – changed multiple times without justification – may have been arranged to match with a transport plane to Honduras the next day.

"Officials apparently channel as many individuals as they can toward that facility so they can fill the flight and send them out," commented a representative.

The ongoing impact

The complete ordeal has resulted in permanent damage, according to the lawsuit. Rosario continues to live with anxiety regarding threats and illegal detention in Honduras.

In a prior announcement, the government department claimed that Rosario "decided" to bring her children to the immigration check-in in April, and was questioned about authorities to relocate the minors with someone secure. The agency also asserted that Rosario elected departure with her children.

Ruby, who was didn't complete her school year in the US, is at risk of "educational decline" and is "facing substantial psychological challenges", according to the court documents.

Romeo, who has now become five years old, was unable to access vital and necessary healthcare in Honduras. He temporarily visited the US, without his mother, to resume care.

"The boy's worsening medical status and the interruption of his care have generated for her tremendous anxiety and psychological pain," the lawsuit claims.

*Names of family members have been changed.