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The revelation came from a roadway marker that disclosed their final destination: Alexandria, Louisiana.

Their journey continued in the cargo area of an federal transport truck – their items confiscated and passports not returned. Rosario and her two American-born children, one of whom battles stage 4 kidney cancer, lacked information about where immigration officials were directing them.

The initial encounter

The family members had been taken into custody at an required meeting near New Orleans on April 24. After being prevented from consulting their attorney, which they would subsequently allege in court filings ignored legal protections, the family was transported 200 miles to this rural town in the state's interior.

"Our location remained undisclosed," she recounted, responding to questions about her situation for the premier instance after her family's case gained attention. "Authorities directed that I shouldn't inquire, I questioned our location, but they offered no answer."

The forced departure

The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her two children were compulsorily transported to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the following day, from a regional airfield in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for mass deportation operations. The facility houses a unique detention center that has been called a legal "vacuum" by lawyers with people held there, and it connects directly onto an runway area.

While the holding center holds exclusively grown men, confidential information indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have passed through the Alexandria airport on federal aircraft during the opening period of the present government. Certain people, like Rosario, are held in undisclosed hotels before being deported or transferred to other holding facilities.

Temporary confinement

Rosario could not recall which Alexandria hotel her family was taken to. "I just remember we entered through a parking area, not the front door," she remembered.

"We were treated like captives in accommodation," Rosario said, explaining: "My kids would attempt to approach the door, and the women officers would get mad."

Health issues

Rosario's child Romeo was diagnosed with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had spread to his lungs, and was receiving "regular and critical life-saving cancer treatment" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his detention by authorities. His female sibling, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was apprehended with her mother and brother.

Rosario "pleaded with" guards at the hotel to allow her to use a telephone the night the family was there, she reported in official complaints. She was finally allowed one brief phone call to her father and notified him she was in Alexandria.

The overnight search

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

Unknown to Rosario, her lawyers and supporters had conducted overnight searches to locate where the two families had been kept, in an bid for legal action. But they remained undiscovered. The attorneys had made numerous petitions to immigration authorities immediately after the arrest to block the deportation and determine her location. They had been repeatedly ignored, according to official records.

"The Louisiana location is itself fundamentally opaque," said an immigration advocate, who is representing Rosario in active court cases. "But in situations involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the main center, but place them in unidentified accommodations near the facility.

Judicial contentions

At the heart of the legal action filed on behalf of Rosario and another family is the claim that immigration authorities have breached internal policies governing the handling of US citizen children with parents facing removal. The directives state that authorities "should afford" parents "sufficient time" to make choices about the "wellbeing or relocation" of their young offspring.

Federal authorities have not yet responded to Rosario's claims in court. The government agency did not respond to specific inquiries about the claims.

The aviation facility incident

"Once we got there, it was a mostly deserted facility," Rosario stated. "Only deportation vehicles were coming in."

"There were multiple vans with more detainees," she said.

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

"That segment was upsetting," she said. "My offspring kept questioning why everyone was chained hand and foot ... if they were bad people. I explained it was just part of the process."

The aircraft boarding

The family was then compelled to board an aircraft, legal documents state. At approximately this time, according to filings, an immigration field office director eventually responded to Rosario's attorney – informing them a removal halt had been rejected. Rosario said she had not agreed ever for her two American-born offspring to be sent to another country.

Advocates said the date of the detention may not have been accidental. They said the appointment – changed multiple times without reason – may have been scheduled to align with a removal aircraft to Honduras the subsequent day.

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

The consequences

The entire experience has resulted in irreparable harm, according to the court case. Rosario continues to live with fear of extortion and illegal detention in Honduras.

In a earlier communication, the federal agency stated that Rosario "decided" to bring her children to the federal appointment in April, and was inquired whether she preferred authorities to relocate the minors with someone protected. The organization also stated that Rosario decided on removal with her children.

Ruby, who was couldn't finish her academic term in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "facing substantial psychological challenges", according to the litigation.

Romeo, who has now become five years old, was could not obtain specialized and life-saving medical care in Honduras. He briefly returned to the US, without his mother, to continue treatment.

"The child's declining condition and the interruption of his care have caused Rosario significant distress and emotional turmoil," the legal action alleges.

*Names of individuals have been altered.