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The revelation came from a interstate indicator that disclosed their ultimate location: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They traveled in the cargo area of an immigration enforcement vehicle – their personal belongings confiscated and identification held by agents. Rosario and her two American-born children, one of whom battles advanced renal cancer, remained unaware about where immigration officials were transporting them.

The detention

The family unit had been detained at an federal appointment near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from consulting their attorney, which they would later claim in official complaints violated their rights, the family was moved 200 miles to this rural town in the heart of the region.

"They never told me where I was going," Rosario stated, answering inquiries about her situation for the first time after her family's case received coverage. "I was told that I shouldn't inquire, I inquired about our destination, but they didn't respond."

The forced departure

Rosario, 25, and her two children were forcibly removed to Honduras in the middle of the night the following day, from a regional airfield in Alexandria that has emerged as a hub for extensive immigration enforcement. The facility houses a unique detention center that has been called a legal "vacuum" by legal representatives with clients inside, and it leads straight onto an airport tarmac.

While the detention facility contains solely male adults, obtained records indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have been processed at the Alexandria airport on government charter flights during the opening period of the existing leadership. Some individuals, like Rosario, are confined to secret lodging before being removed from the country or transferred to other holding facilities.

Lodging restrictions

She was unable to identify which Alexandria hotel her family was taken to. "I just remember we entered through a vehicle access point, not the main entrance," she remembered.

"We felt like detainees in lodging," Rosario said, explaining: "The young ones would try to go toward the door, and the female guards would get mad."

Treatment disruptions

The mother's young boy Romeo was identified with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "regular and critical medical intervention" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his arrest. His sister, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was detained with her relatives.

Rosario "implored" guards at the hotel to allow her to use a telephone the night the family was there, she stated in federal court documents. She was ultimately granted one brief phone call to her father and told him she was in Alexandria.

The nighttime investigation

The family was awakened at 2 a.m. the subsequent day, Rosario said, and taken directly to the airport in a transport vehicle with another family also detained at the hotel.

Unknown to Rosario, her legal team and advocates had looked extensively after hours to locate where the two families had been detained, in an attempt to obtain legal assistance. But they remained undiscovered. The legal representatives had made repeated requests to immigration authorities right after the detention to stop the transfer and find her position. They had been regularly overlooked, according to court documents.

"The Alexandria staging facility is itself fundamentally opaque," said an expert, who is providing legal counsel in current legal proceedings. "Yet with cases involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the main center, but accommodate them at undisclosed hotel rooms close by.

Legal arguments

At the center of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Rosario and additional plaintiffs is the allegation that government entities have violated their own regulations governing the care for US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The policies state that authorities "must provide" parents "adequate chance" to make choices about the "welfare or movement" of their young offspring.

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

The terminal ordeal

"Once we got there, it was a largely vacant terminal," Rosario remembered. "Just immigration transports were pulling up."

"Several vehicles were present with more detainees," she said.

They were held in the vehicle at the airport for four and a half hours, watching other vans approach with men shackled at their wrists and ankles.

"That segment was distressing," she said. "The kids kept asking why everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were wrongdoers. I told them it was just standard procedure."

The aircraft boarding

The family was then forced onto an aircraft, court filings state. At approximately this time, according to records, an immigration regional supervisor finally replied to Rosario's attorney – notifying them a deportation delay had been denied. Rosario said she had not provided approval for her two citizen minors to be deported abroad.

Advocates said the timing of the arrests may not have been accidental. They said the check-in – postponed repeatedly without explanation – may have been scheduled to align with a deportation flight to Honduras the next day.

"They seem to direct as many individuals as they can toward that location so they can populate the aircraft and deport them," explained a legal advocate.

The aftermath

The entire experience has caused lasting consequences, according to the lawsuit. Rosario continues to live with concerns about exploitation and illegal detention in Honduras.

In a previously released statement, the Department of Homeland Security stated that Rosario "elected" to bring her children to the required meeting in April, and was questioned about authorities to relocate the minors with someone protected. The department also claimed that Rosario decided on removal with her children.

Ruby, who was couldn't finish her academic term in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "facing substantial mental health issues", according to the legal proceedings.

Romeo, who has now reached five years, was could not obtain vital and necessary medical treatment in Honduras. He made a short trip to the US, without his mother, to resume care.

"The boy's worsening medical status and the interruption of his care have caused Rosario substantial worry and mental suffering," the court documents state.

*Names of family members have been modified.