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It was a interstate indicator that disclosed their end point: Alexandria, Louisiana.

Their journey continued in the rear compartment of an federal transport truck – their items confiscated and travel documents retained by authorities. Rosario and her US citizen offspring, one of whom battles advanced renal cancer, remained unaware about where federal agents were directing them.

The detention

The family unit had been apprehended at an required meeting near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from contacting legal counsel, which they would eventually argue in court filings breached due process, the family was moved 200 miles to this rural town in central Louisiana.

"I received no information about our destination," Rosario stated, answering inquiries about her situation for the initial occasion after her family's case received coverage. "They instructed me that I couldn't ask questions, I asked where we were headed, but they didn't respond."

The deportation procedure

The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her minor children were involuntarily deported to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the following day, from a regional airfield 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 lawyers with clients inside, and it opens immediately onto an flight line.

While the detention facility contains solely grown men, confidential information indicate at least 3,142 females and minors have traveled via the Alexandria airport on federal aircraft during the first 100 days of the existing leadership. Various detainees, like Rosario, are confined to undisclosed hotels before being removed from the country or moved to other detention sites.

Hotel detention

The mother didn't remember which Alexandria hotel her family was taken to. "My recollection is we accessed via a garage entrance, not the main entrance," she remembered.

"Our situation resembled detainees in lodging," Rosario said, adding: "The children would try to go toward the door, and the security personnel would become angry."

Medical concerns

Rosario's child Romeo was identified with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital life-saving cancer treatment" at a children's healthcare facility in New Orleans before his arrest. His female sibling, Ruby, also a American national, was seven when she was detained with her family members.

Rosario "implored" guards at the hotel to allow her to use a telephone the night the family was there, she claimed in legal filings. She was ultimately granted one limited communication to her father and told him she was in Alexandria.

The after-hours locating effort

The family was woken up at 2 a.m. the following morning, Rosario said, and brought straight to the airport in a transport vehicle with other individuals also held at the hotel.

Unbeknownst to the mother, her attorneys and representatives had looked extensively after hours to identify where the two families had been held, in an bid for legal intervention. But they remained undiscovered. The lawyers had made multiple applications to immigration authorities right after the arrest to stop the transfer and find her position. They had been repeatedly ignored, according to official records.

"The Louisiana location is itself already a black hole," said an immigration advocate, who is providing legal counsel in ongoing litigation. "But in situations involving families, they will often not take them to the facility itself, but put them in secret lodging close by.

Court claims

At the center of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Rosario and additional plaintiffs is the assertion that federal agencies have breached internal policies governing the handling of US citizen children with parents facing removal. The guidelines state that authorities "should afford" parents "adequate chance" to make choices about the "wellbeing or relocation" of their underage dependents.

Immigration officials have not yet addressed Rosario's claims in court. The Department of Homeland Security did not answer specific inquiries about the assertions.

The terminal ordeal

"Upon reaching the location, it was a very empty airport," Rosario recalled. "Just immigration transports were pulling up."

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

They were confined to the transport at the airport for four and a half hours, observing other vehicles arrive with men chained at their hands and feet.

"That portion was traumatic," she said. "My children kept inquiring about everyone was shackled hand and foot ... if they were bad people. I told them it was just part of the process."

The aircraft boarding

The family was then forced onto an aircraft, official records state. At approximately this time, according to records, an immigration field office director ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – notifying them a stay of removal had been denied. Rosario said she had not consented at any point for her two US citizen children to be sent to another country.

Legal representatives said the scheduling of the apprehension may not have been random. They said the appointment – changed multiple times without justification – may have been scheduled to align with a removal aircraft to Honduras the subsequent day.

"Officials apparently channel as many cases as they can toward that location so they can occupy the plane and deport them," stated a attorney.

The consequences

The whole situation has led to permanent damage, according to the court case. Rosario continues to live with concerns about exploitation and kidnapping in Honduras.

In a previously released statement, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Rosario "decided" to bring her children to the federal appointment in April, and was asked if she wanted authorities to assign the kids with someone safe. The organization also asserted that Rosario decided on removal with her children.

Ruby, who was didn't complete her academic term in the US, is at risk of "academic regression" and is "facing substantial psychological challenges", according to the court documents.

Romeo, who has now turned five, was unable to access specialized and life-saving healthcare in Honduras. He temporarily visited the US, without his mother, to resume care.

"The child's declining condition and the interruption of his care have caused Rosario tremendous anxiety and mental suffering," the court documents state.

*Names of family members have been changed.