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They discovered their location through a highway exit sign that disclosed their final destination: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They were transported in the back of an immigration enforcement vehicle – their possessions taken and identification retained by authorities. Rosario and her US citizen offspring, one of whom is fighting metastatic kidney disease, lacked information about where federal agents were taking them.

The detention

The family unit had been detained 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 violated their rights, the family was relocated 200 miles to this small community in central Louisiana.

"Our location remained undisclosed," she recounted, providing details about her situation for the premier instance after her family's case became public. "They instructed me that I must not seek information, I inquired about our destination, but they offered no answer."

The forced departure

Rosario, 25, and her young offspring were forcibly removed to Honduras in the early morning hours the next day, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has become a center for extensive immigration enforcement. The site houses a unique detention center that has been referred to as a legal "vacuum" by attorneys with people held there, and it opens immediately onto an flight line.

While the holding center accommodates only male adults, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 females and minors have traveled via the Alexandria airport on federal aircraft during the first 100 days of the present government. Some individuals, like Rosario, are confined to undisclosed hotels before being deported or relocated to other confinement locations.

Temporary confinement

The mother didn't remember which Alexandria hotel her family was taken to. "I recall we entered through a vehicle access point, not the front door," she recalled.

"We were treated like detainees in lodging," Rosario said, noting: "My kids would attempt to approach the door, and the female guards would become angry."

Treatment disruptions

Rosario's child Romeo was diagnosed with metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had metastasized to his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital cancer care" at a specialized children's hospital in New Orleans before his apprehension. His female sibling, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, 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 legal filings. She was finally allowed one short conversation to her father and informed him she was in Alexandria.

The overnight search

The family was awakened at 2 a.m. the following morning, Rosario said, and transported immediately to the airport in a van with additional detainees also confined in the hotel.

Without her knowledge, her legal team and supporters had conducted overnight searches to identify where the two families had been kept, in an bid for legal intervention. But they were not located. The attorneys had made multiple applications to immigration authorities right after the detention to stop the transfer and establish her whereabouts. They had been consistently disregarded, according to court documents.

"The Alexandria staging facility is itself already a black hole," said an expert, who is representing Rosario in active court cases. "Yet with cases involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the main center, but place them in undisclosed hotel rooms in proximity.

Legal arguments

At the core of the litigation filed on behalf of Rosario and other individuals is the assertion that government entities have violated their own regulations governing the treatment of US citizen children with parents facing removal. The directives state that authorities "are required to grant" parents "sufficient time" to make determinations concerning the "welfare or movement" of their minor children.

Federal authorities have not yet answered Rosario's allegations legally. The Department of Homeland Security did not answer specific inquiries about the assertions.

The aviation facility incident

"Once we got there, it was a mostly deserted facility," Rosario recalled. "Just immigration transports were pulling up."

"Numerous transports appeared with more detainees," she said.

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

"That segment was upsetting," she said. "My offspring kept inquiring about everyone was shackled hand and foot ... if they were wrongdoers. I explained it was just normal protocol."

The aircraft boarding

The family was then forced onto an aircraft, legal documents 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 refused. Rosario said she had not consented at any point for her two citizen minors to be removed to Honduras.

Legal representatives said the scheduling of the apprehension may not have been random. They said the meeting – rescheduled three times without reason – may have been scheduled to align with a deportation flight to Honduras the following day.

"Officials apparently channel as many cases as they can toward that airport so they can fill the flight and deport them," stated a legal advocate.

The consequences

The whole situation has caused permanent damage, according to the lawsuit. Rosario continues to live with fear of extortion and illegal detention in Honduras.

In a prior announcement, the government department asserted that Rosario "decided" to bring her children to the federal appointment in April, and was inquired whether she preferred authorities to relocate the minors with someone safe. The agency also stated that Rosario elected departure with her children.

Ruby, who was didn't complete her school year in the US, is at risk of "academic regression" and is "experiencing significant mental health issues", according to the court documents.

Romeo, who has now reached five years, was could not obtain critical and essential healthcare in Honduras. He temporarily visited the US, without his mother, to continue treatment.

"Romeo's deteriorating health and the interruption of his care have caused Rosario significant distress and mental suffering," the legal action alleges.

*Names of people involved have been changed.