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The revelation came from a highway exit sign that revealed their ultimate location: Alexandria, Louisiana.

Their journey continued in the cargo area of an immigration enforcement vehicle – their items seized and identification not returned. Rosario and her US citizen offspring, one of whom battles metastatic kidney disease, remained unaware about where federal agents were directing them.

The initial encounter

The family unit had been taken into custody at an immigration check-in near New Orleans on April 24. Following restrictions from consulting their attorney, which they would later claim in official complaints violated their rights, the family was relocated 200 miles to this rural town in the state's interior.

"They never told me where I was going," Rosario stated, answering inquiries about her ordeal for the initial occasion after her family's case gained attention. "I was told that I shouldn't inquire, I inquired about our destination, but they remained silent."

The deportation procedure

The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her young offspring were forcibly removed to Honduras in the middle of the night the next day, from a regional airfield in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for mass deportation operations. The site houses a unique detention center that has been referred to as a legal "void" by lawyers with people held there, and it opens immediately onto an flight line.

While the detention facility contains solely grown men, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have been processed at the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the first 100 days of the existing leadership. Various detainees, like Rosario, are detained at unidentified accommodations before being deported or transferred to other confinement locations.

Lodging restrictions

The mother didn't remember which Alexandria hotel her family was directed toward. "I just remember we came in through a garage entrance, not the front door," she stated.

"We were treated like captives in accommodation," Rosario said, adding: "The children would attempt to approach the door, and the women officers would get mad."

Treatment disruptions

Rosario's child Romeo was identified with metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had spread to his lungs, and was receiving "ongoing and essential cancer care" at a children's healthcare facility in New Orleans before his detention by authorities. His sister, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was apprehended with her relatives.

Rosario "implored" guards at the hotel to grant access to a telephone the night the family was there, she claimed in official complaints. She was eventually permitted one brief phone call to her father and informed 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 van with other individuals also held at the hotel.

Without her knowledge, her attorneys and advocates had looked extensively after hours to identify where the two families had been kept, in an attempt to obtain legal action. But they could not be found. The lawyers had made multiple applications to immigration authorities following the detention to block the deportation and find her position. They had been regularly overlooked, according to official records.

"The Alexandria staging facility is itself essentially a void," said a legal representative, who is representing Rosario in current legal proceedings. "But in situations involving families, they will typically not transport them to the main center, but place them in undisclosed hotel rooms near the facility.

Legal arguments

At the center of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Rosario and additional plaintiffs is the claim that federal agencies have ignored established rules governing the treatment of US citizen children with parents subject to deportation. The guidelines state that authorities "must provide" parents "a reasonable opportunity" to make choices about the "welfare or movement" of their minor children.

Federal authorities have not yet addressed Rosario's claims in court. The Department of Homeland Security did not address detailed questions about the claims.

The terminal ordeal

"Upon reaching the location, it was a very empty airport," Rosario stated. "Exclusively removal vans were coming in."

"There were multiple vans with other mothers and children," she said.

They were kept in the van at the airport for four and a half hours, watching other vans approach with men restrained at their wrists and ankles.

"That portion was distressing," she said. "My children kept questioning why everyone was chained hand and foot ... if they were bad people. I explained it was just normal protocol."

The aircraft boarding

The family was then forced onto an aircraft, court filings state. At roughly then, according to filings, an immigration local official 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 American-born offspring to be removed to Honduras.

Legal representatives said the timing of the arrests may not have been accidental. They said the appointment – postponed repeatedly without justification – may have been timed to coincide with a deportation flight to Honduras the subsequent day.

"They seem to direct as many individuals as they can toward that facility so they can fill the flight and send them out," commented a attorney.

The aftermath

The whole situation has caused lasting consequences, according to the legal action. Rosario continues to live with concerns about exploitation and abduction in Honduras.

In a previously released statement, the Department of Homeland Security 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 protected. The agency also stated that Rosario chose to be deported with her children.

Ruby, who was didn't complete her educational period in the US, is at risk of "educational decline" and is "facing substantial psychological challenges", according to the litigation.

Romeo, who has now reached five years, was unable to access critical and essential healthcare in Honduras. He temporarily visited the US, without his mother, to continue treatment.

"Romeo's deteriorating health and the disruption to his treatment have caused Rosario substantial worry and psychological pain," the lawsuit claims.

*Names of people involved have been modified.