'Our destination remained a mystery': one family's journey into Louisiana's'black hole' of removal

It was a highway exit sign that unveiled their end point: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They traveled in the rear compartment of an government transport – their items confiscated and passports held by agents. Rosario and her two children with citizenship, one of whom is fighting advanced renal cancer, lacked information about where immigration officials were directing them.

The initial encounter

The household had been detained at an immigration check-in near New Orleans on April 24. Following restrictions from speaking with their lawyer, which they would later claim in official complaints violated their rights, the family was relocated 200 miles to this modest settlement in central Louisiana.

"They never told me where I was going," the mother explained, providing details about her situation for the premier instance after her family's case gained attention. "I was told that I couldn't ask questions, I asked where we were headed, but they offered no answer."

The deportation procedure

The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her minor children were forcibly removed to Honduras in the middle of the night the following day, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has emerged as a hub for mass deportation operations. The facility houses a unique detention center that has been referred to as a legal "vacuum" by lawyers with detained individuals, and it connects directly onto an flight line.

While the detention facility contains solely adult male detainees, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 females and minors have been processed at the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the opening period of the current administration. Certain people, like Rosario, are detained at unidentified accommodations before being sent abroad or moved to other holding facilities.

Temporary confinement

Rosario could not recall which Alexandria hotel her family was taken to. "My recollection is we entered through a vehicle access point, not the front door," she remembered.

"We were treated like prisoners in a room," Rosario said, noting: "The young ones would attempt to approach the door, and the female guards would become angry."

Medical concerns

The mother's four-year-old son Romeo was identified with metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital medical intervention" at a specialized children's hospital in New Orleans before his apprehension. His female sibling, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was detained with her relatives.

Rosario "begged" guards at the hotel to grant access to a telephone the night the family was there, she reported in legal filings. She was finally allowed one limited communication to her father and told him she was in Alexandria.

The nighttime investigation

The family was awakened at 2 a.m. the following morning, Rosario said, and transported immediately to the airport in a transport vehicle with additional detainees also detained at the hotel.

Unbeknownst to the mother, her lawyers and advocates had looked extensively after hours to find where the two families had been kept, in an attempt to obtain legal assistance. But they could not be found. The attorneys had made multiple applications to immigration authorities right after the apprehension to block the deportation and establish her whereabouts. They had been regularly overlooked, according to official records.

"This processing center is itself already a black hole," said an expert, who is handling the case in ongoing litigation. "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 core of the litigation filed on behalf of Rosario and additional plaintiffs is the allegation that government entities have violated their own regulations governing the handling of US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The directives state that authorities "must provide" parents "adequate chance" to make decisions regarding the "welfare or movement" of their minor children.

Government agencies have not yet addressed Rosario's legal assertions. The federal department did not respond to detailed questions about the claims.

The aviation facility incident

"Upon reaching the location, it was a very empty airport," Rosario stated. "Just immigration transports were coming in."

"Several vehicles were present with other mothers and children," she said.

They were confined to the transport at the airport for an extended period, seeing other transports come with men restrained at their hands and feet.

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

The plane journey

The family was then made to enter an aircraft, legal documents state. At approximately this time, according to documents, an immigration regional supervisor finally replied to Rosario's attorney – telling them a stay of removal had been denied. Rosario said she had not provided approval for her two citizen minors to be deported abroad.

Advocates said the scheduling of the apprehension may not have been random. They said the appointment – postponed repeatedly without explanation – may have been arranged to match with a removal aircraft to Honduras the subsequent day.

"Officials apparently channel as many cases as they can toward that airport so they can populate the aircraft and send them out," stated a attorney.

The ongoing impact

The entire experience has caused lasting consequences, according to the lawsuit. Rosario persistently faces concerns about exploitation and kidnapping in Honduras.

In a prior announcement, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Rosario "elected" to bring her children to the required meeting in April, and was questioned about authorities to relocate the minors with someone secure. The agency also stated that Rosario elected departure with her children.

Ruby, who was couldn't finish her educational period in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "undergoing serious emotional difficulties", according to the court documents.

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

"The child's declining condition and the halt in his therapy have caused Rosario tremendous anxiety and psychological pain," the legal action alleges.

*Names of family members have been changed.