They discovered their location through a roadway marker that revealed their final destination: Alexandria, Louisiana.
Their journey continued in the rear compartment of an government transport – their personal belongings confiscated and identification retained by authorities. Rosario and her US citizen offspring, one of whom is fighting advanced renal cancer, had no knowledge about where authorities were taking them.
The apprehension
The family members had been detained at an required meeting near New Orleans on April 24. Following restrictions from speaking with their lawyer, which they would subsequently allege in official complaints ignored legal protections, the family was relocated 200 miles to this modest settlement in the state's interior.
"I received no information about our destination," the mother explained, responding to questions about her ordeal for the first time after her family's case gained attention. "They instructed me that I couldn't ask questions, I questioned our location, but they didn't respond."
The forced departure
The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her young offspring were involuntarily deported to Honduras in the middle of the night the following day, from a regional airfield in Alexandria that has become a center for large-scale removal programs. The site houses a unique detention center that has been described as a legal "black hole" by legal representatives with clients inside, and it leads straight onto an runway area.
While the confinement area accommodates only male adults, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 women and children have traveled via the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the initial three months of the existing leadership. Some individuals, like Rosario, are held in unidentified accommodations before being removed from the country or moved to other detention sites.
Hotel detention
The mother didn't remember which Alexandria hotel her family was directed toward. "My recollection is we accessed via a vehicle access point, not the front door," she recalled.
"We were treated like captives in accommodation," Rosario said, adding: "The children would attempt to approach the door, and the security personnel would become angry."
Medical concerns
Rosario's child Romeo was diagnosed with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had metastasized to his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital life-saving cancer treatment" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his apprehension. His sister, Ruby, also a US citizen, was seven when she was detained with her relatives.
Rosario "pleaded with" guards at the hotel to allow her to use a telephone the night the family was there, she reported in official complaints. She was ultimately granted one brief phone call to her father and informed him she was in Alexandria.
The nighttime investigation
The family was woken up at 2 a.m. the next morning, Rosario said, and taken directly to the airport in a transport vehicle with other individuals also held at the hotel.
Without her knowledge, her legal team and advocates had conducted overnight searches to identify where the two families had been kept, in an bid for legal action. But they remained undiscovered. The attorneys had made multiple applications to immigration authorities immediately after the detention to prevent removal and determine her location. They had been regularly overlooked, according to official records.
"The Alexandria staging facility is itself already a black hole," said a legal representative, who is handling the case in current legal proceedings. "However, when dealing involving families, they will typically not transport them to the main center, but place them in secret lodging in proximity.
Court claims
At the core of the litigation filed on behalf of Rosario and another family is the allegation that government entities have ignored established rules governing the handling of US citizen children with parents subject to deportation. The directives state that authorities "are required to grant" parents "adequate chance" to make determinations concerning the "welfare or movement" of their minor children.
Immigration officials have not yet addressed Rosario's legal assertions. The federal department did not address comprehensive queries about the assertions.
The aviation facility incident
"When we arrived, it was a mostly deserted facility," Rosario recalled. "Just immigration transports were arriving."
"There were multiple vans with more detainees," she said.
They were confined to the transport at the airport for over four hours, watching other vans approach with men shackled at their wrists and ankles.
"That experience was traumatic," she said. "My children kept asking why everyone was chained hand and foot ... if they were wrongdoers. I told them it was just normal protocol."
The aircraft boarding
The family was then made to enter an aircraft, official records state. At around this period, according to filings, an immigration regional supervisor ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – informing them a removal halt had been refused. Rosario said she had not agreed ever for her two citizen minors to be sent to another country.
Attorneys said the date of the detention may not have been coincidental. They said the check-in – rescheduled three times without reason – may have been timed to coincide with a removal aircraft to Honduras the following day.
"Authorities appear to funnel as many individuals as they can toward that facility so they can fill the flight and deport them," explained a attorney.
The aftermath
The whole situation has led to irreparable harm, according to the lawsuit. Rosario continues to live with concerns about exploitation and abduction in Honduras.
In a earlier communication, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Rosario "chose" to bring her children to the required meeting in April, and was questioned about authorities to place the children with someone secure. The organization also stated that Rosario elected departure with her children.
Ruby, who was didn't complete her academic term in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "undergoing serious mental health issues", according to the legal proceedings.
Romeo, who has now turned five, was denied critical and essential medical care in Honduras. He made a short trip to the US, without his mother, to resume care.
"Romeo's deteriorating health and the interruption of his care have created for the mother tremendous anxiety and psychological pain," the legal action alleges.
*Names of people involved have been changed.
