U.S. authorities deport parents, leaving young American daughter in need of brain cancer treatment
Fighting to Reunite: A 10-Year-Old US Citizen's Family Survives the Brush with Deportation
In an undeniably heart-wrenching tale, a family of six is battling to return to the United States to ensure their US-citizen daughter receives essential brain cancer treatments. The mother and father, who requested pseudonyms for safety reasons, were deported to Mexico, leaving their ill child behind.
The reason for their detention stems from an unfortunate event last month. At a Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas, the family, along with the daughter and four siblings, was apprehended, eventually being sent across the Mexican border following the parents' decision to take their children with them. Their attorney, Danny Woodward, from the immigration nonprofit Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), has been leading their case.
essential information: Brain cancer treatment for the child means a five-hour drive from where they previously lived, and it involves clearing a Border Patrol checkpoint inside Texas to reach a Houston medical facility.
The parents clarified that they have no criminal records, and all but one of their children are US citizens, as stated by TCRP. The day they were detained, the family was en route to a Houston medical center for the daughter's follow-up care after a tumor diagnosis and subsequent surgery.
On the fateful morning of February 3, the girl began experiencing headaches and dizziness, prompting her parents to head straight back to the hospital. Accompanied by a physician's letter explaining the girl's critical condition, the family was stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, approximately 90 miles into their journey. Surprisingly, they had traveled through the checkpoint on multiple occasions for post-op medical appointments using the doctor's letter without trouble, according to Woodward.
However, this time, the family was questioned extensively, then transported to a federal processing facility and kept overnight. The next day, they were taken to a nearby port of entry and walked across the US-Mexico border by immigration authorities, Woodward stated.
Their oldest child, also a US citizen, was not traveling with the family at the time and remains in the U.S. According to TCRP, the couple lived quietly in Texas, working in agriculture and having no criminal records.
Consequently, Maria and Juan are now considering various avenues to lawfully rejoin their sick daughter in the U.S. and access her much-needed medical care. One potential path would be applying for "humanitarian parole" from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This temporary permission is granted for urgent humanitarian reasons and could potentially facilitate their return.
The parents expressed their desperation and appeal in a heart-torn video statement to CNN: "Help us return so that our little girl can continue receiving the medical care she needs. She does not deserve to suffer this way. Cancer has brought her enough suffering."
Information Sources:
- American Immigration Council, "Understanding Deportation: Implications for U.S. Citizen Children and their Parents," (accessed March 30, 2023), [https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/understanding-deportation-implications-us-citizen-children-and-their-parents].
- National Immigration Law Center, "FAQ: What resources do immigrants have for assistance with health care," (accessed March 30, 2023), [https://www.nilc.org/issues/health/faq-immigrant-health-care-resources/].
- USA Today, "Undocumented mothers are making life-and-death decisions about separating from their children," (accessed March 30, 2023), [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2023/03/26/undocumented-mothers-life-death-decisions-separating-children/70944568007/].
- The US-citizen daughter, suffering from brain cancer, urgently needs her parents, Maria and Juan, who were deported to Mexico, to lawfully rejoin them in the US for her critical medical treatment.
- Danny Woodward, from the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), is working tirelessly to help the family gain humanitarian parole from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), hoping it will facilitate their return to the US.
- Amidst their struggle to reunite, the family recently experienced dizziness and other symptoms during a routine Border Patrol checkpoint encounter, causing them to be detained and subsequently deported.
