Deported on the way to the hospital: a 10 -year -old American girl in recovery of brain cancer was expelled to Mexico

It was a trip that had made up to five times in the last year, since the diagnosis of a carcinogenic tumor in the brain of the 10 -year -old daughter. But this time the final destination was not a medical office in a Houston hospital. The family – two undocumented parents and five children, four of them born in the United States and, therefore, American citizens – ended up on the southern side of a border bridge that crosses the Bravo River in Texas, expelled from the country only with what they brought on top.

By the country of Spain

Now, more than a month after express deportation, the family, identified with the fictional name Hernández García for security concerns, is in Mexico with a girl in recovery of recent brain surgery, another son with a heart condition, both without adequate medical care, and a last 17 -year -old son who stayed in Texas. The Mexican authorities, consulted by this newspaper, said they have not been able to locate the family at the moment.

The case, which first published the NBC chain on Wednesday, is the unequivocal evidence that intentional cruelty against migrants has returned revenge to the United States. In Donald Trump’s first mandate, the separation of families on the border was one of the greatest scandals he faced and the only one who forced him to reverse his plans. In the second, in just a few months, his administration has redoubled the commitment in his search to carry out a mass deportation of millions of immigrants.

The transparent clues had already pronounced them the current Tsar of the Border, Tom Homan, in an interview of months ago. When asked how they would solve the problem of deporting members of families of mixed immigration status, in which some members are citizens or legal residents and others are undocumented, without separating parents from children, he replied coldly: “Of course there is a way. Families can be deported together. ” The case of the Hernández García is the first publicly known in which this has happened.

According to the mother’s testimony, the family was heading from Rio Grande City to Houston to an emergency consultation with specialists for her 10 -year -old daughter, who had recently been operated. As on previous occasions, they carried cards signed by their doctors and lawyers who supported and justified the displacement to show in a control post that should pass. It had always been enough to continue with the trip.

This time not. Although they have no criminal record, when the parents could not show valid migratory documents, the agents ignored the letters and «were not interested» in listening to the medical justification. They arrested them and transferred everyone to a immigration detention center. There they were separated by sex and treated «as dogs, registering children unnecessarily invasive and calling them degrading insults», according to the version shared by Civil Texas Rights Project, the organization of legal representation that has taken the case of the family for free. In addition, add the mother’s story, migratory agents until they tried to confiscate the medicines of minors.

But the most difficult moment was yet to come. The agents introduced two options to the parents: to leave the children in the United States in government custody, so they would probably not see them again, or accept that the children were deported next to them. Without a document or guardianship that will make clear who will take care of the minors, they enter the official reception system and, once inside, recover custody is very complicated. The difficult decision was clear to the family.

They were transferred together in a van to the border and left them from the Mexican side. Once there, they looked for a shelter to take refuge. Now, according to reports, the family is in a house, but the same security fears that have made the family prefer not to give their real name remain latent and have meant that children have not been able to go to school. The sixth son, 17, has stayed alone in Texas.

The child’s child still has cerebral inflammation after surgery, which causes difficulties in speaking and moving the right side of the body. At this time in Mexico he has not been able to access the necessary medical care, which includes rehabilitation therapies and medications to prevent seizures. His 15 -year -old old brother suffers from a heart disorder that causes irregular beats and requires medication and treatment, which he has not been able to have either.

US authorities have not expressly communicated on the case. The Civil Family and Texas Rights Project, on the other hand, launched this week a public request to send to Congress and demand reunification of the family. “I want my children to access the medical care they need, attend their schools and live their lives in the only country they know as their home. They are American citizens, it is their right. But it is also his right to be raised by her parents in that home, ”said the mother in a press release.

Apart from the bitter memory of families, the case of the Hernández García family also highlights other controversial points of the Donald Trump’s migratory agenda. On the one hand, there are questions about the proceeding in deportation because it is not clear that it has been ordered by a judge. But in addition, by deporting minors who are American citizens by birth, the debate on this constitutional basis that gives citizenship to those who are born in the United States territory automatically passes from the legal field – where it is now located after numerous demands against Trump’s decree that stopped the practice – to the real world, in which the consequences are devastating.