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 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 currently 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 with the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Monday 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.

“We’re asking for an investigation into what happened,” Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, told NBC News.

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.

“We’re also asking for humanitarian parole for the family,” Garza said, so the girl’s undocumented parents can care for her as she continues her recovery after undergoing 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 state-side 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 mother and father 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.

Present with the parents at the time of their immigration arrest were five of their children ages 15, 13, 10, 8, and 6 — four of whom are U.S. citizens. The parents and the children were then 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 withholding the names of the mother and the rest of the family members, since they were deported to an area in Mexico that is known for kidnapping U.S. citizens.

Since the family’s deportation, the 10-year-old girl has not been able to access the follow-up care she needs. With the swelling on her brain still not fully gone, the girl has difficulties with speech and mobility of 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, according to her mother.

Their 15-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen, and their 13-year-old daughter, who is not a U.S. citizen, 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 not treated well. The son wears a monitor that tracks his heart rate.

The complaint alleges CBP’s medical team knew they 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 did not transfer any of the children, in particular the 10-year-old girl, to a hospital or medical care facility “to obtain pediatric medical review” as required by the Flores Settlement Agreement, which regulates how minors must be treated when in federal immigration custody, the complaint states.

“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 the parents were denied “adequate access to their attorney.”

A DHS spokesperson told NBC News 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. They stated they couldn’t speak about the specifics of the case for privacy reasons.

Trump and officials in his administration have repeatedly said they are limiting illegal immigration and prioritizing the deportation of 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 is representing arrived in the U.S. 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 different 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 following their deportation.

“It’s a really difficult time in someone’s life, being 17, entering your senior year of high school,” Garza said, “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.