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

Their journey continued in the rear compartment of an government transport – their personal belongings seized and travel documents not returned. The mother and her two children with citizenship, one of whom is fighting stage 4 kidney cancer, lacked information about where immigration officials were transporting them.

The initial encounter

The family members had been apprehended at an required meeting near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from consulting their attorney, which they would subsequently allege in official complaints ignored legal protections, the family was moved 200 miles to this small community in central Louisiana.

"They never told me where I was going," she recounted, answering inquiries about her ordeal for the premier instance after her family's case gained attention. "They instructed me that I must not seek information, I asked where we were headed, but they didn't respond."

The forced departure

Rosario, 25, and her young offspring were forcibly removed to Honduras in the middle of the night the subsequent morning, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for large-scale removal programs. The location houses a distinctive confinement area that has been referred to as a legal "vacuum" by lawyers with people held there, and it leads straight onto an runway area.

While the confinement area accommodates only grown men, obtained records indicate at least 3,142 women and children have traveled via the Alexandria airport on federal aircraft during the opening period of the present government. Certain people, like Rosario, are confined to secret lodging before being sent abroad or moved to other detention sites.

Temporary confinement

She was unable to identify which Alexandria hotel her family was directed toward. "I recall we accessed via a garage entrance, not the front door," she stated.

"We felt like captives in accommodation," Rosario said, noting: "My kids would attempt to approach the door, and the female guards would become angry."

Health issues

The mother's four-year-old son Romeo was identified with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had metastasized to his lungs, and was receiving "ongoing and essential medical intervention" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his apprehension. His sister, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was taken into custody with her mother and brother.

Rosario "implored" guards at the hotel to permit utilization of a telephone the night the family was there, she reported in federal court documents. She was ultimately granted one limited communication to her father and notified him she was in Alexandria.

The nighttime investigation

The family was awakened at 2 a.m. the subsequent day, Rosario said, and brought straight to the airport in a transport vehicle with other individuals also held at the hotel.

Unbeknownst to the mother, her legal team and representatives had conducted overnight searches to locate where the two families had been held, in an effort to secure legal assistance. But they could not be found. The attorneys had made repeated requests to immigration authorities immediately after the detention to block the deportation and determine her location. They had been consistently disregarded, according to court documents.

"The Louisiana location is itself already a black hole," said a legal representative, who is handling the case in active court cases. "Yet with cases involving families, they will typically not transport them to the main center, but accommodate them at undisclosed hotel rooms close by.

Judicial contentions

At the heart of the legal action filed on behalf of Rosario and other individuals is the allegation that federal agencies have breached internal policies governing the handling of US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The directives state that authorities "are required to grant" parents "a reasonable opportunity" to make decisions regarding the "care or travel" of their underage dependents.

Immigration officials have not yet responded to Rosario's allegations legally. The federal department did not address comprehensive queries about the assertions.

The aviation facility incident

"Once we got there, it was a very empty airport," Rosario remembered. "Just immigration transports were coming in."

"Numerous transports appeared with other mothers and children," she said.

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

"That experience was distressing," she said. "My offspring kept asking why everyone was chained hand and foot ... if they were wrongdoers. I explained it was just standard procedure."

The aircraft boarding

The family was then forced onto an aircraft, official records state. At around this period, according to documents, an immigration regional supervisor finally replied to Rosario's attorney – notifying them a stay of removal had been refused. Rosario said she had not agreed ever for her two citizen minors to be removed to Honduras.

Advocates said the date of the detention may not have been accidental. They said the appointment – postponed repeatedly without reason – may have been timed to coincide with a removal aircraft to Honduras the following day.

"Officials apparently channel as many cases as they can toward that airport so they can occupy the plane and send them out," stated a legal advocate.

The consequences

The whole situation has led to lasting consequences, according to the court case. Rosario persistently faces concerns about exploitation and abduction in Honduras.

In a previously released statement, the government department claimed that Rosario "elected" to bring her children to the immigration check-in in April, and was questioned about authorities to place the children with someone secure. The department also claimed that Rosario chose to be deported with her children.

Ruby, who was unable to complete her educational period in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "facing substantial psychological challenges", according to the legal proceedings.

Romeo, who has now reached five years, was could not obtain vital and necessary medical care in Honduras. He briefly returned to the US, without his mother, to resume care.

"The child's declining condition and the interruption of his care have generated for her substantial worry and psychological pain," the legal action alleges.

*Names of family members have been altered.