{"id":39873,"date":"2025-03-18T04:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T09:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39873"},"modified":"2025-03-18T04:35:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T09:35:30","slug":"deported-family-of-u-s-citizen-girl-recovering-from-brain-surgery-alleges-civil-rights-abuses-in-new-complaint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39873","title":{"rendered":"Deported family of U.S. citizen girl recovering from brain surgery alleges civil rights abuses in new complaint"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A family that was deported to Mexico<\/a> is requesting an investigation into abuses they say they faced in U.S. detention, according to a civil rights complaint first obtained by NBC News. The mixed-immigration status family, including four U.S. citizen children, one of whom is a 10-year-old girl recovering from brain surgery, are in an area of Mexico where, they say, they fear for their safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Texas Civil<\/a>\u2002Rights Project<\/a>, a legal advocacy and litigation organization representing the family, filed the complaint Monday with the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on behalf of the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint alleges<\/a> that Customs and Border Protection, which\u2002detained and deported the family last month<\/a>, committed \u201cserious abuses\u201d when it denied medical care to the 10-year-old girl, detained U.S. citizen children \u201cin deplorable conditions\u201d and removed them to Mexico, \u201cwhere their lives are in peril because of their status as U.S. citizens,\u201d among other claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration\u2019s border czar, Tom Homan, has said \u201cfamilies can be deported together<\/a>\u201d regardless of status. Homan said<\/a> it would be up to the parents to decide whether to depart the U.S. together or leave their children behind. In this case, the parents took their children with them so the family could stay together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, told NBC News, \u201cWe\u2019re also asking for humanitarian parole for the family,\u201d so the\u2002girl\u2019s undocumented parents<\/a> can care for her as she continues her recovery after she underwent\u2002surgery in Texas to remove a brain tumor last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mother\u2002exclusively told NBC News<\/a> about her family\u2019s ordeal last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said it all began on Feb. 3, when they were rushing from the Rio Grande Valley, along Texas\u2019 southeastern border with Mexico, where they lived, to Houston, where their daughter\u2019s specialist doctors are based, for an emergency medical checkup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the way there, they stopped at a stateside immigration checkpoint<\/a>, one they have passed through multiple times when they have driven to Houston. The parents were equipped with letters from their doctors and lawyers to show the officers at the checkpoint to get through. But the letters weren\u2019t enough this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration authorities arrested the parents after they were unable to show legal immigration documentation. According to their attorney, Daniel Woodward, other than lacking \u201cvalid immigration status in the U.S.,\u201d the parents have \u201cno criminal history.\u201d He added the parents were in the process of obtaining T visas<\/a>, a temporary immigration benefit for victims of human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five of their children, ages 15, 13, 10, 8 and 6 \u2014 four of whom are U.S. citizens \u2014 were with them when they were arrested. The parents and the children were taken to a detention facility, where they spent 24 hours before they were placed in a van and dropped on the Mexico side of a Texas bridge on Feb. 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News is not publishing the family members\u2019 names, because they were deported to an area in Mexico that is known for kidnapping U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the family was deported, the 10-year-old girl hasn\u2019t been able to get the follow-up care she needs. With the swelling on her brain still not fully gone, she has difficulties with speech and mobility on the right side of her body, her mother said. She was routinely checking in with doctors monitoring her recovery, attending rehabilitation therapy sessions and taking medication to prevent convulsions, her mother said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their 15-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, and their 13-year-old daughter, who isn\u2019t, also have serious medical conditions. They both live with a heart disorder known as Long QT syndrome<\/a>, which causes irregular heartbeats and can be life-threatening if it isn\u2019t treated well. The son wears a monitor that tracks his heart rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint alleges CBP\u2019s medical team knew it had custody of \u201cthree children with complex medical needs, one of whom was complaining of urgent and serious symptoms, two of whom were U.S. Citizens.\u201d And still, CBP didn\u2019t transfer any of the children, in particular the 10-year-old girl, to a hospital or other medical care facility \u201cto obtain pediatric medical review\u201d as required by the Flores Settlement Agreement<\/a>, which regulates how minors must be treated in federal immigration custody<\/a>, the complaint says<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of granting her that care, CBP forced a child who was still recovering from brain surgery to sleep in a hot, dirty, brightly lit cell,\u201d the complaint reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint also outlines additional claims alleging that the children were inappropriately searched during detention, \u201cincluding the pat downs of sensitive parts of their bodies,\u201d and that the parents were denied \u201cadequate access to their attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement that the reports of the family\u2019s situation are \u201cinaccurate\u201d because when \u201csomeone is given expedited removal orders<\/a> and chooses to disregard them, they will face the consequences\u201d of the process. The spokesperson said privacy reasons prevented speaking about the specifics of the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump and officials in his administration have repeatedly said they are limiting illegal immigration and prioritizing deporting immigrants who have committed serious crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for Woodward, \u201cthis case just really emphasizes that the administration is taking their resources and using it to crack down on these folks who are really kind of the backbone and engine of our economy who do things like pack our produce and pick our vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parents Woodward represents arrived in the United States from Mexico in 2013 and settled in Texas hoping for \u201ca better life for the family,\u201d\u2002the mother told NBC News<\/a>. She and her husband both worked a string of jobs, including picking and packing produce, to support their six children. The couple also has a 17-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, who was left behind in Texas after they were deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really difficult time in someone\u2019s life, being 17, entering your senior year of high school,\u201d said Garza, of the Texas Civil Rights Project, \u201cand to go through that period of time being separated from your family is absolutely unimaginable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, getting the family back is also about protecting him and making sure that he is with his family,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A family that was deported to Mexico is requesting an investigation into abuses they say they faced in U.S. detention, according to a civil rights complaint first obtained by NBC News. The mixed-immigration status family, including four U.S. citizen children, one of whom is a 10-year-old girl recovering from brain surgery, are in an area of Mexico […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[32717,1649,4957,3609,1638],"class_list":["post-39873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-brain-surgery","tag-children","tag-civil-rights","tag-deportation","tag-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39875,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873\/revisions\/39875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}