They discovered their location through a highway exit sign that unveiled their ultimate location: Alexandria, Louisiana.
Their journey continued in the cargo area of an government transport – their items confiscated and travel documents retained by authorities. Rosario and her two children with citizenship, one of whom battles stage 4 kidney cancer, had no knowledge about where authorities were taking them.
The detention
The family members had been taken into custody at an federal appointment near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from consulting their attorney, which they would subsequently allege in legal documents violated their rights, the family was transported 200 miles to this rural town in central Louisiana.
"I received no information about our destination," she recounted, providing details about her ordeal for the initial occasion after her family's case became public. "I was told that I shouldn't inquire, I inquired about our destination, but they didn't respond."
The removal process
The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her minor children were involuntarily deported to Honduras in the middle of the night the following day, from a regional airfield in Alexandria that has become a center for large-scale removal programs. The site houses a unique detention center that has been described as a legal "vacuum" by attorneys with clients inside, and it opens immediately onto an runway area.
While the holding center holds exclusively male adults, obtained records indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have been processed at the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the initial three months of the present government. Some individuals, like Rosario, are held in secret lodging before being deported or moved to other detention sites.
Lodging restrictions
She was unable to identify which Alexandria hotel her family was brought to. "I recall we came in through a garage entrance, not the front door," she recalled.
"We were treated like captives in accommodation," Rosario said, explaining: "The young ones would move closer to the door, and the security personnel would become angry."
Medical concerns
Rosario's child Romeo was identified with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had spread to his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital medical intervention" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his arrest. His sister, Ruby, also a American national, was seven when she was apprehended with her relatives.
Rosario "implored" guards at the hotel to permit utilization of a telephone the night the family was there, she claimed in legal filings. She was finally allowed one limited communication 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 detained at the hotel.
Unbeknownst to the mother, her attorneys and advocates had conducted overnight searches to find where the two families had been kept, in an attempt to obtain legal assistance. But they remained undiscovered. The lawyers had made multiple applications to immigration authorities following the arrest to stop the transfer and determine her location. They had been repeatedly ignored, according to court documents.
"The Alexandria staging facility is itself fundamentally opaque," said a legal representative, who is representing Rosario in active court cases. "Yet with cases involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the main center, but accommodate them at unidentified accommodations near the facility.
Court claims
At the core of the litigation filed on behalf of Rosario and another family is the claim that immigration authorities have ignored established rules governing the care for US citizen children with parents subject to deportation. The directives state that authorities "are required to grant" parents "adequate chance" to make decisions regarding the "wellbeing or relocation" of their underage dependents.
Federal authorities have not yet responded to Rosario's legal assertions. The Department of Homeland Security did not address comprehensive queries about the assertions.
The aviation facility incident
"When we arrived, it was a mostly deserted facility," Rosario recalled. "Exclusively removal vans were arriving."
"Numerous transports appeared with additional families," she said.
They were kept in the van at the airport for an extended period, observing other vehicles arrive with men chained at their wrists and ankles.
"That experience was distressing," she said. "My offspring kept asking why everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were bad people. I said it was just part of the process."
The aircraft boarding
The family was then forced onto an aircraft, legal documents state. At roughly then, according to documents, an immigration regional supervisor ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – informing them a removal halt had been denied. Rosario said she had not consented at any point 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 – changed multiple times without justification – may have been scheduled to align with a removal aircraft to Honduras the subsequent day.
"Authorities appear to funnel as many cases as they can toward that airport so they can fill the flight and remove them," commented a attorney.
The ongoing impact
The complete ordeal has led to irreparable harm, according to the legal action. Rosario persistently faces anxiety regarding threats and abduction in Honduras.
In a prior announcement, the government department asserted that Rosario "chose" to bring her children to the immigration check-in in April, and was asked if she wanted authorities to assign the kids with someone protected. The agency also stated that Rosario chose to be deported with her children.
Ruby, who was couldn't finish her academic term in the US, is at risk of "educational decline" and is "experiencing significant psychological challenges", according to the court documents.
Romeo, who has now reached five years, was could not obtain critical and essential healthcare in Honduras. He made a short trip to the US, without his mother, to continue treatment.
"The boy's worsening medical status and the disruption to his treatment have caused Rosario tremendous anxiety and mental suffering," the court documents state.
*Names of individuals have been changed.
