Deported family of U.S. citizen girl recovering from brain surgery alleges civil rights abuses

A family that was deported to Mexico is requesting an investigation into abuses they say they faced in U.S. detention, according to a civil rights complaint first obtained by NBC News. The mixed-immigration status family, including four U.S. citizen children, one of whom is a 10-year-old girl recovering from brain surgery, are in an area of Mexico where, they say, they fear for their safety.

The Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy and litigation organization representing the family, filed the complaint Monday with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on behalf of the family.

The complaint alleges that Customs and Border Protection, which detained and deported the family last month, committed “serious abuses” when it denied medical care to the 10-year-old girl, detained U.S. citizen children “in deplorable conditions” and removed them to Mexico, “where their lives are in peril because of their status as U.S. citizens,” among other claims.

The Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, has said “families can be deported together” regardless of status. Homan said it would be up to the parents to decide whether to depart the U.S. together or leave their children behind. In this case, the parents took their children with them so the family could stay together.

Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, told NBC News, “We’re also asking for humanitarian parole for the family,” so the girl’s undocumented parents can care for her as she continues her recovery after she underwent surgery in Texas to remove a brain tumor last year.

The mother exclusively told NBC News about her family’s ordeal last week.

She said it all began on Feb. 3, when they were rushing from the Rio Grande Valley, along Texas’ southeastern border with Mexico, where they lived, to Houston, where their daughter’s specialist doctors are based, for an emergency medical checkup.

On the way there, they stopped at a stateside immigration checkpoint, one they have passed through multiple times when they have driven to Houston. The parents were equipped with letters from their doctors and lawyers to show the officers at the checkpoint to get through. But the letters weren’t enough this time.

Immigration authorities arrested the parents after they were unable to show legal immigration documentation. According to their attorney, Daniel Woodward, other than lacking “valid immigration status in the U.S.,” the parents have “no criminal history.” He added the parents were in the process of obtaining T visas, a temporary immigration benefit for victims of human trafficking.

Five of their children, ages 15, 13, 10, 8 and 6 — four of whom are U.S. citizens — were with them when they were arrested. The parents and the children were taken to a detention facility, where they spent 24 hours before they were placed in a van and dropped on the Mexico side of a Texas bridge on Feb. 4.

NBC News is family members’ names, because they were deported to an area in Mexico that is known for kidnapping U.S. citizens.

Since the family was deported, the 10-year-old girl hasn’t been able to get the follow-up care she needs. With the swelling on her brain still not fully gone, she has difficulties with speech and mobility on the right side of her body, her mother said. She was routinely checking in with doctors monitoring her recovery, attending rehabilitation therapy sessions and taking medication to prevent convulsions, her mother said.

Their 15-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, and their 13-year-old daughter, who isn’t, also have serious medical conditions. They both live with a heart disorder known as Long QT syndrome, which causes irregular heartbeats and can be life-threatening if it isn’t treated well. The son wears a monitor that tracks his heart rate.

The complaint alleges CBP’s medical team knew it had custody of “three children with complex medical needs, one of whom was complaining of urgent and serious symptoms, two of whom were U.S. Citizens.” And still, CBP didn’t transfer any of the children, in particular the 10-year-old girl, to a hospital or other medical care facility “to obtain pediatric medical review” as required by the Flores Settlement Agreement, which regulates how minors must be treated in federal immigration custody, the complaint says.

“Instead of granting her that care, CBP forced a child who was still recovering from brain surgery to sleep in a hot, dirty, brightly lit cell,” the complaint reads.

The complaint also outlines additional claims alleging that the children were inappropriately searched during detention, “including the pat downs of sensitive parts of their bodies,” and that the parents were denied “adequate access to their attorney.”

A DHS spokesperson said in a statement that the reports of the family’s situation are “inaccurate” because when “someone is given expedited removal orders and chooses to disregard them, they will face the consequences” of the process. The spokesperson said privacy reasons prevented speaking about the specifics of the case.

President Donald Trump and officials in his administration have repeatedly said they are limiting illegal immigration and prioritizing deporting immigrants who have committed serious crimes.

But for Woodward, “this case just really emphasizes that the administration is taking their resources and using it to crack down on these folks who are really kind of the backbone and engine of our economy who do things like pack our produce and pick our vegetables.”

The parents Woodward represents arrived in the United States from Mexico in 2013 and settled in Texas hoping for “a better life for the family,” the mother told NBC News. She and her husband both worked a string of jobs, including picking and packing produce, to support their six children. The couple also has a 17-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, who was left behind in Texas after they were deported.

“It’s a really difficult time in someone’s life, being 17, entering your senior year of high school,” said Garza, of the Texas Civil Rights Project, “and to go through that period of time being separated from your family is absolutely unimaginable.

“So, getting the family back is also about protecting him and making sure that he is with his family,” she added.