A U.S. Citizen Child Seeking Brain Cancer Treatment Was Deported with Her Parents

A family living in Rio Grande City was on their way to Houston to see medical specialists for their 10-year-old daughter when they were stopped and arrested at an immigration checkpoint, NBC reported Wednesday.

When the mother — who spoke to NBC and whose name is being withheld to protect the family's identity — told immigration officials about their daughter’s medical condition, “they weren’t interested in hearing that,” she told the news outlet.

On Feb. 4., immigration law enforcement removed the girl and her four U.S.-born siblings from Texas upon deporting their undocumented parents, according to NBC and a press release from the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy organization representing the family.

The family had gone to Houston to see their daughter’s specialist doctors at least five other times and never encountered issues at the immigration checkpoint, said attorney Danny Woodward from the Texas Civil Rights Project in an interview with NBC.

Woodward told the outlet that the parents usually presented letters from doctors and lawyers at the checkpoint to pass, but the parents were arrested in early February when they couldn’t show valid immigration papers. Woodward noted that the parents have “no criminal history.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not comment on the family’s case “for privacy reasons,” according to an email sent to NBC on Wednesday. In an email to the site on Thursday, a CBP spokesperson called reports on the family’s situation “inaccurate” since “when someone is given expedited removal orders and chooses to disregard them, they will face consequences.”

NBC said it withheld the names of the family members because they were deported to an area of Mexico where kidnappings of U.S. citizens are prevalent.

The 10-year-old daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer last year and has since had surgery to remove the tumor, her mother said. She told the news site that her daughter still hasn’t completely recovered, and the daughter regularly saw doctors to get rehabilitation therapy and prevent convulsions, a type of seizure.

“We witnessed devastating family separations during Trump’s first administration, causing irreversible harm to the children forced to endure these policies. Now, we are seeing these dangerous tactics resurface,” said Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, in a press release from the organization. “Families like this are just as Texan as any of us, and our dreams are the same: to keep our children safe and healthy and together.”

Last October, Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar and acting ICE director, told CBS News that “families can be deported together” regardless of immigration status.

After the family was detained, they were transported to a detention facility, according to NBC. While the family has since moved into a house, the mother said her family worries for their safety.

“The fear is horrible. I almost can’t explain it, but it’s something frustrating, very tough, something you wouldn’t wish on anyone,” she said in an interview with NBC.

Read more at NBC News.