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They discovered their location through a highway exit sign that disclosed their final destination: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They were transported in the cargo area of an federal transport truck – their items seized and travel documents not returned. Rosario and her US citizen offspring, one of whom is fighting metastatic kidney disease, remained unaware about where immigration officials were transporting them.

The detention

The family members had been apprehended at an federal appointment near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from contacting legal counsel, which they would eventually argue in legal documents ignored legal protections, the family was moved 200 miles to this small community in the state's interior.

"Our location remained undisclosed," she recounted, responding to questions about her ordeal for the initial occasion after her family's case gained attention. "I was told that I couldn't ask questions, I inquired about our destination, but they offered no answer."

The removal process

Rosario, 25, and her two children were compulsorily transported to Honduras in the middle of the night the next day, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for mass deportation operations. The facility houses a unique detention center that has been described as a legal "black hole" by attorneys with detained individuals, and it connects directly onto an runway area.

While the confinement area accommodates only male adults, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have been processed at the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the opening period of the current administration. Certain people, like Rosario, are confined to undisclosed hotels before being removed from the country or transferred to other holding facilities.

Temporary confinement

Rosario could not recall which Alexandria hotel her family was brought to. "My recollection is we entered through a parking area, not the primary access," she remembered.

"Our situation resembled prisoners in a room," Rosario said, noting: "My kids would move closer to the door, and the security personnel would get mad."

Treatment disruptions

The mother's child Romeo was found to have stage 4 kidney cancer at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital cancer care" 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 family members.

Rosario "begged" guards at the hotel to permit utilization of a telephone the night the family was there, she stated in legal filings. She was eventually permitted one brief phone call to her father and told him she was in Alexandria.

The nighttime investigation

The family was roused at 2 a.m. the subsequent day, Rosario said, and transported immediately to the airport in a transport vehicle with additional detainees also confined in the hotel.

Without her knowledge, her legal team and supporters had searched throughout the night to locate where the two families had been kept, in an effort to secure legal intervention. But they remained undiscovered. The legal representatives had made numerous petitions to immigration authorities right after the apprehension to prevent removal and find her position. They had been repeatedly ignored, according to court documents.

"The Louisiana location is itself already a black hole," said an immigration advocate, who is handling the case in current legal proceedings. "However, when dealing involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the facility itself, but put them in secret lodging close by.

Court claims

At the heart of the legal action filed on behalf of Rosario and other individuals is the assertion that immigration authorities have breached internal policies governing the treatment of US citizen children with parents facing removal. The directives state that authorities "should afford" parents "adequate chance" to make choices about the "wellbeing or relocation" of their young offspring.

Immigration officials have not yet responded to Rosario's claims in court. The government agency did not address comprehensive queries about the claims.

The airport experience

"Upon reaching the location, it was a very empty airport," Rosario stated. "Only deportation vehicles were coming in."

"Several vehicles were present with more detainees," she said.

They were kept in the van at the airport for over four hours, watching other transports come with men chained at their wrists and ankles.

"That experience was upsetting," she said. "My offspring kept questioning why everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were wrongdoers. I explained it was just normal protocol."

The flight departure

The family was then made to enter an aircraft, legal documents state. At approximately this time, according to records, an immigration regional supervisor ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – informing them a deportation delay had been refused. Rosario said she had not provided approval for her two US citizen children to be deported abroad.

Advocates said the timing of the arrests may not have been accidental. They said the check-in – rescheduled three times without justification – may have been scheduled to align with a removal aircraft to Honduras the subsequent day.

"Authorities appear to funnel as many detainees as they can toward that facility so they can fill the flight and deport them," stated a representative.

The aftermath

The entire experience has led to lasting consequences, according to the legal action. Rosario still experiences anxiety regarding threats and illegal detention in Honduras.

In a previously released statement, the government department asserted that Rosario "chose" to bring her children to the immigration check-in in April, and was questioned about authorities to assign the kids with someone secure. The organization also claimed that Rosario decided on removal with her children.

Ruby, who was couldn't finish her academic term in the US, is at risk of "academic regression" and is "undergoing serious psychological challenges", according to the legal proceedings.

Romeo, who has now turned five, was could not obtain critical and essential medical care in Honduras. He made a short trip to the US, without his mother, to resume care.

"The child's declining condition and the halt in his therapy have generated for her tremendous anxiety and emotional turmoil," the legal action alleges.

*Names of people involved have been modified.