Deported on her way to the hospital: 10-year-old American girl recovering from brain cancer sent to Mexico

It was a journey the family had made up to five times in the past year, ever since their 10-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. But this time, the final destination wasn’t a doctor’s office in a Houston hospital. Instead, the family — two undocumented parents and five children, four of whom were born in the United States and are U.S. citizens — found themselves on the south side of a border bridge that crosses the Rio Grande in Texas, expelled from the country with only the belongings they had on them.

Now, more than a month after their express deportation, the family — referred to by the pseudonym Hernández García for security reasons — is in Mexico. They are caring for a daughter recovering from recent brain surgery, a son with a heart condition, and both children lack proper medical care. Meanwhile, their 17-year-old son remains in Texas. Mexican authorities, contacted by this newspaper, have stated they have been unable to locate the family at this time.

The case, first reported by NBC on Wednesday, provides undeniable evidence that intentional cruelty toward migrants has resurfaced with a vengeance in the United States. During Donald Trump’s first term, the separation of families at the border became one of the most significant scandals of his presidency, forcing him to reverse his policies. In his second term, just a few months in, his administration has escalated its efforts to carry out mass deportations of millions of immigrants.

Tom Homan, the current border czar, had already signaled this shift in an interview months ago. When asked how the administration would handle deporting members of mixed-status families — some of whom are U.S. citizens or legal residents while others are undocumented — without separating parents from their children, he coldly responded: “Of course there is a way. Families can be deported together.” The Hernández García case marks the first publicly reported instance in which this has occurred.

According to the mother’s testimony, the family was traveling from Rio Grande City to Houston for an emergency consultation with specialists for their 10-year-old daughter, who had recently undergone surgery. As they had done on previous occasions, they carried letters signed by their doctors and lawyers to support and justify their trip at a checkpoint they needed to pass through. In the past, these documents had always been enough to allow them to continue their journey

But not this time. Despite having no criminal record, when the parents were unable to present valid immigration documents, the agents disregarded the letters and were “not interested” in hearing their medical justification. They were arrested and taken to an immigration detention center. There, the family was separated by sex and treated “like dogs, making unnecessarily invasive searches of the children and calling them degrading slurs,” according to the account shared by the Texas Civil Rights Project, the legal organization representing the family pro bono. The mother adds that immigration agents even tried to confiscate the children’s medication.

But the hardest moment was yet to come. The agents presented the parents with two options: leave the children in U.S. government custody, where they would likely never see them again, or allow the children to be deported with them. Without official documentation or guardianship to clarify who would care for the children, they would be placed in the foster care system, where regaining custody is notoriously difficult. Faced with this difficult decision, the family chose to stay together.

They were transported in a van to the border and dropped off on the Mexican side. Once there, they sought refuge in a shelter. According to reports, the family is now staying in a home, but the same security concerns that led them to use a pseudonym persist. As a result, the children have not been able to attend school. The family’s 17-year-old son remains in Texas, separated from his family.

The 10-year-old still has brain swelling after the surgery, which makes it difficult for her to speak and move the right side of her body. During this time in Mexico, she has been unable to access the necessary medical care, including rehabilitation therapies and medication to prevent seizures. Her 15-year-old brother, who has a heart condition that causes irregular heartbeats, also requires medication and treatment, but has similarly been unable to receive any care.

U.S. authorities have not commented specifically on the case. Last week, the family and the Texas Civil Rights Project launched a public petition directed at Congress, demanding the reunification of the family. “I want my children to be able to access the medical care they need, to attend their schools, and live their lives in the only country they know as home.​​ They are American citizens, it is their right. But it is also their right to be raised by their parents in that home,” the mother said in a press release.

Beyond the painful memory of family separations, the Hernández García case also raises other controversial aspects of Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. First, there are questions about the deportation process, as it is unclear whether the deportation was ordered by a judge. Additionally, by deporting minors who are U.S. citizens by birth, the case brings the ongoing debate over birthright citizenship out of the legal realm — where it currently resides due to numerous lawsuits against Trump’s executive order halting the practice — and into the real world, where the devastating consequences are becoming increasingly apparent.

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