Family Of Deported U.S. Child Recovering From Brain Cancer To Meet With Congressional Hispanic Caucus To Advocate For Their Return

The family of a deported U.S. citizen recovering from brain cancer is set to meet with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Mexico to advocate for their return.

According to NBC News, the family traveled to Monterrey on Friday in hopes that sharing their ordeal will motivate lawmakers to advocate for their return under humanitarian parole. They will meet with Democratic Reps. Adriano Espaillat, Sylvia Garcia and Joaquin Castro.

The girl was deported along with her undocumented parents in March while traveling to an emergency checkup. While traveling to Houston from the Rio Grande valley to see a specialist in February, the parents and their four children were stopped at a checkpoint. Despite explaining the situation, which the officers "weren't interested in hearing," and providing paperwork from doctors and lawyers, the entire family was deported, NBC News reported back them.

Other than lacking "valid immigration status in the U.S.," the parents have "no criminal history," Danny Woodward, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy and litigation organization representing the family, told the outlet.

The young girl had been attending routine checkups as she recovers from having her brain tumor removed in 2024. She has also been taking medication to prevent convulsions and undergoing rehabilitation therapies, both of which she has been unable to receive since her family was relocated to Mexico.

A few days after the family of the girl filed a civil rights complaint alleging abuses while in detention. The filing claims that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) committed "serious abuses" by denying care to the girl and detained her along with her family in "deplorable conditions."

The family said they were separated by gender at the detention center, and the young girl was forced to lay on a cold floor before the family was dropped off in Mexico. They were also allegedly subjected to inappropriate searches, "including the pat downs of sensitive parts of their bodies," while parents were denied "adequate access to their attorney," reads a passage of the complaint.

The girl's mother explained that treatment in Texas is "what keeps her (daughter) safe and that's why they're seeking to be allowed to return on humanitarian parole.