They discovered their location through a roadway marker that disclosed their final destination: Alexandria, Louisiana.
Their journey continued in the back of an immigration enforcement vehicle – their possessions confiscated and identification held by agents. Rosario and her US citizen offspring, including a child who battles advanced renal cancer, had no knowledge about where federal agents were directing them.
The detention
The household had been apprehended at an required meeting near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from contacting legal counsel, which they would subsequently allege in court filings ignored legal protections, the family was relocated 200 miles to this modest settlement in the heart of the region.
"Our location remained undisclosed," she recounted, responding to questions about her experience for the first time after her family's case became public. "I was told that I couldn't ask questions, I inquired about our destination, but they didn't respond."
The removal process
Rosario, 25, and her young offspring were compulsorily transported to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the subsequent morning, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has emerged as a hub for mass deportation operations. The site houses a specialized holding facility that has been called a legal "vacuum" by lawyers with detained individuals, and it opens immediately onto an flight line.
While the confinement area accommodates only grown men, obtained records indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have been processed at the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the opening period of the existing leadership. Various detainees, like Rosario, are detained at secret lodging before being sent abroad or relocated to other detention sites.
Temporary confinement
She was unable to identify which Alexandria hotel her family was taken to. "My recollection is we came in through a parking area, not the primary access," she stated.
"Our situation resembled detainees in lodging," Rosario said, noting: "My kids would attempt to approach the door, and the security personnel would get mad."
Treatment disruptions
The mother's young boy Romeo was found to have metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had spread to his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital cancer care" at a children's healthcare facility in New Orleans before his apprehension. His sister, Ruby, also a American national, was seven when she was apprehended with her mother and brother.
Rosario "begged" guards at the hotel to permit utilization of a telephone the night the family was there, she stated in federal court documents. She was eventually permitted one short conversation to her father and told him she was in Alexandria.
The overnight search
The family was awakened at 2 a.m. the next morning, Rosario said, and transported immediately to the airport in a transport vehicle with additional detainees also detained at the hotel.
Without her knowledge, her lawyers and representatives had searched throughout the night to locate where the two families had been kept, in an attempt to obtain legal assistance. But they were not located. The lawyers had made numerous petitions to immigration authorities right after the apprehension to prevent removal and determine her location. They had been consistently disregarded, according to legal filings.
"This processing center is itself essentially a void," said an immigration advocate, who is providing legal counsel in current legal proceedings. "However, when dealing involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the facility itself, but place them in secret lodging in proximity.
Legal arguments
At the center of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Rosario and additional plaintiffs is the assertion that government entities have breached internal policies governing the handling of US citizen children with parents subject to deportation. The policies state that authorities "should afford" parents "sufficient time" to make choices about the "care or travel" of their underage dependents.
Immigration officials have not yet addressed Rosario's allegations legally. The Department of Homeland Security did not address detailed questions about the allegations.
The terminal ordeal
"Upon reaching the location, it was a mostly deserted facility," Rosario recalled. "Only deportation vehicles were coming in."
"There were multiple vans with other mothers and children," she said.
They were kept in the van at the airport for over four hours, seeing other vans approach with men restrained at their wrists and ankles.
"That portion was upsetting," she said. "My offspring kept asking why everyone was chained hand and foot ... if they were criminals. I explained it was just normal protocol."
The plane journey
The family was then made to enter an aircraft, official records state. At roughly then, according to documents, an immigration field office director eventually responded to Rosario's attorney – notifying them a deportation delay had been rejected. Rosario said she had not agreed ever for her two citizen minors to be removed to Honduras.
Attorneys said the timing of the arrests may not have been coincidental. They said the check-in – postponed repeatedly without explanation – may have been timed to coincide with a transport plane to Honduras the following day.
"Authorities appear to funnel as many cases as they can toward that airport so they can fill the flight and remove them," explained a representative.
The aftermath
The complete ordeal has led to lasting consequences, according to the lawsuit. Rosario still experiences anxiety regarding threats and illegal detention in Honduras.
In a previously released statement, the federal agency claimed that Rosario "chose" to bring her children to the required meeting in April, and was inquired whether she preferred authorities to assign the kids with someone safe. The organization also asserted that Rosario decided on removal with her children.
Ruby, who was unable to complete her school year in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "facing substantial emotional difficulties", according to the court documents.
Romeo, who has now reached five years, was could not obtain vital and necessary medical treatment in Honduras. He briefly returned to the US, without his mother, to proceed with therapy.
"The boy's worsening medical status and the halt in his therapy have caused Rosario tremendous anxiety and mental suffering," the lawsuit claims.
*Names of people involved have been changed.
