A family that was recently removed from the United States to Mexico has filed a complaint seeking an investigation into what they describe as “serious abuses” they say they faced during their detention in the US prior to their removal.
The mixed-status family includes two undocumented parents and six children, five of whom are US citizens. On 4 February, five of the children, including four who are US citizens, and the two parents were removed from Texas and sent to Mexico after they were stopped at an immigration checkpoint.
One of the children, a 10-year-old girl, is recovering from brain cancer surgery, and the family says she has faced significant disruptions in her medical care since the family’s removal.
The complaint, filed on Monday with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on behalf of the family by the legal advocacy organization Texas Civil Rights Project, alleges that Customs and Border Protection, committed “serious abuses” while the family was detained.
The complaint, first reported by NBC News, alleges the 10-year-old girl was denied “urgent medical care”, that the US citizen children were held in “deplorable conditions”, that the family’s due process rights were violated, and that the family was subjected to “a course of abuse and humiliation” while in detention.
This comes as the Trump administration has ramped up its deportation efforts as part of its immigration crackdown. Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s “border czar”, has previously stated that families with mixed immigration statuses “can be deported together”, leaving parents to decide whether they want to depart the country as a family, or leave their children in the US.
In this case, the parents opted to remain together with their children, rather than be have their family be split up.
The Texas Civil Rights Project said that officials presented the parents with “an impossible choice” between either leaving their children in US custody government “and never see them again” or being deported together.
The complaint alleges that on the morning of 3 February 2025, the family was traveling from the Rio Grande valley to Houston to get emergency treatment at Texas Children’s hospital for their daughter, as they had done several times before.
On the way there, the family passed through an immigration checkpoint, one that they had previously crossed several times without incident, the complaint states.
As they had done previous times, they presented officers with a letter from the hospital detailing their daughter’s brain tumor treatment, the necessity of continuing her care at Texas Children’s hospital, and a request that the parents be permitted to travel to oversee care for their daughter.
The parents also said that they showed officers the children’s birth certificates, proving that they are US citizens, and a letter from their immigration attorney regarding their T visa applications.
But this was insufficient. Instead of allowing them to proceed, the complaint states that the officers “detained the entire family” for over 24 hours and “eventually forced the entire family, including US citizens, to Mexico” where the daughter “cannot receive appropriate treatment”.
The complaint adds that the family’s 15 year-old son, who is also a US citizen, as well as their one child who is not a US citizen, both have a heart disorder known as Long QT syndrome, which they claim was known to CBP’s medical team.
“It was clear to CBP’s medical team that they had custody of three children with complex medical needs, one of whom was complaining of urgent and serious symptoms, two of whom were US Citizens,” the complaint reads.
And still, the family allege that CBP didn’t transfer any of the children, in particular the 10-year-old girl, to a hospital or medical care facility “to obtain pediatric medical review”.
“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 alleges.
It also alleges that the children were inappropriately searched, including pat-downs of sensitive parts of their bodies, and that parents were denied adequate access to their attorney.
In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for CBP said that “the facts as reported are inaccurate.”
“When someone is given expedited removal orders and chooses to disregard them, they will face the consequences as outlined by the expedited removal process for individuals with removal orders,” the statement added. “For privacy reasons, we cannot comment on the specifics of this case.”
The Texas Civil Rights Project is urging DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to “open an immediate investigation” and is also calling on the DHS to immediately grant humanitarian parole to the parents and the child who is not a US citizen so “that the family can be together” while the daughter receives the medical treatment she needs.
The complaint states that the family is currently in Mexico, fearing for their safety and cannot access the medical care they require.
The couple’s oldest child, who is also a US citizen and was not traveling with the family on that day, currently remains in the US.
The complaint notes that the parents are “valued members of their community” in Texas, “dedicated members of their local church” and people who “work hard” and have no criminal records.
The mother told NBC News that since the family was deported, the 10-year-old girl hasn’t received the follow-up care she needs.
The girl still has swelling on her brain, the mother said, which is affecting her speech and mobility on one side.
