Editor’s note: Pseudonyms were used for the family in this story to protect their identity amid their deportation case
When 10-year-old Sara Hernández García woke up feeling dizzy and in aching pain, her parents feared the worst. They bundled her and their four other children into the car and raced from their home in the Rio Grande Valley to the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
It had been a year since the child’s emergency surgery for a brain tumor - but she still required constant care to prevent seizures.
That morning her parents, Maria and Juan, prayed Sara would get the medical attention she needed but while passing through the Sarita Checkpoint on February 3 en route to the hospital, a new nightmare for the family began.
Maria and Juan were detained, accompanied by their four young children, and taken to a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol facility, held for 24 hours before being piled into a van and deported to Mexico. Maria and Juan are also now separated from their eldest child, 17-year-old Fernando, a U.S. citizen, who remained in America.
The family’s desperate efforts to find medical care has broken up their home, landed them in the middle of a political battle and has them living in fear.
“That morning, waking up and thinking they needed to get their child to the emergency room and then suddenly, on the way to getting her to medical care, they get picked up and just sent out of the country…it’s absurd,” the family’s immigration attorney Daniel Woodward told The Independent. “They are really struggling right now,” he added.
Maria and Juan have six children ages 6, 8, 10, 13, 15 and 17. Five are U.S. citizens who have never known any other home than America. The undocumented couple has lived in the U.S. since 2013 and has no criminal record.
None of that mattered as the parents were quickly deported when they entered the system. Now, they are fighting to be allowed to return to America so they can get their daughter care - as a family. Their plight is detailed in a complaint filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
The family allege customs officers confiscated some of Sara’s medication and the children were kept in “deplorable conditions” for 24 hours after during the deportation process, according to the filing obtained by The Independent. They also allege “CBP denied urgent medical care to a vulnerable and disabled U.S. citizen child.”
Hilton Beckham, Customs and Border Protection’s assistant commissioner of public affairs, said the allegations were “false and irresponsible.”
“CBP abides by strict legal and humanitarian standards, with processing facilities—including those in the Rio Grande Valley Sector—under continuous internal and external monitoring to ensure proper medical care, nutrition, welfare checks, and humane conditions,” Beckham said in a statement to The Independent. “The health and well-being of those in custody remain a top priority, with access to necessary medical attention always ensured.”
Maria and Juan, who do not have legal status, moved to America in 2013 in search of a better life. They worked hard and are “valued members of their community,” the complaint stated.
“They are dedicated members of their local church,” it read. “Maria and Juan have no criminal records and spent decades working to build a better life for their children. The children thrive in school, especially in music and art. The eldest, Fernando, dreams of joining the U.S. military after he graduates from high school.”
In addition to Sara’s complex medical needs, her 15-year-old brother, Manuel, and 13-year-old sister, Elizabeth, were born with a rare heart rhythm disorder called Long QT Syndrome. They require regular medical observation, and Manuel wears a heart monitor.
Sara’s health rapidly deteriorated in 2023 when she began to display symptoms.
“Her left foot started to turn at an odd angle. She had stomach pain,” according to the complaint. “She was doing worse in school. She started pulling her hair and complained of headaches.”
Doctors diagnosed her with autism, but Maria and Juan worried that they were missing something. Their fears came true when Sara suffered a seizure in February 2024 and was rushed to hospital. There, doctors discovered a tumor in her brain and she was airlifted to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
Sara nearly died at one point and “Maria thought she was holding her daughter’s lifeless body in her arms,” the complaint says.
Surgeons performed an emergency procedure to remove the tumor and, fortunately, Sara survived. “They told the parents it was a miracle.”
In the year that followed, the surgery caused struggles for Sara and her family. The right side of her body is partially paralyzed, she wears a leg brace and often forgets words. Every day, the child must take medication to prevent seizures, and her parents carry an emergency nasal spray in case she has one. Maria stopped working to care for her daughter, which hit the family financially.
When Sara complained of a painful headache last month, Maria and Juan didn’t hesitate to get her to the specialists overseeing her care. But they never made it.
Instead, the family was stopped at the Customs and Border Patrol Sarita Checkpoint. They presented documentation regarding Sara’s medical condition, as they had done several times before when passing through to get to the hospital in Houston.
This time was different. The Trump administration’s directive for a large-scale mass deportation was in place.
Maria and Juan explained their situation to the officers and showed them the children’s birth certificates to prove they were U.S. citizens.
They also handed officers a letter that explained Sara is a patient at the hospital undergoing treatment for a brain tumor and that because of “the grave nature and complexity of her disease,” she must be able to get to the hospital.
“Rather than let Sara proceed to Texas Children’s, CBP officers detained the entire family,” the complaint says. Customs and Border Protection denies the allegation. An officer then called staff at Texas Children’s Hospital and received confirmation that Sara was a patient, according to the complaint.
“At this point, officers neither allowed the family to proceed to Texas Children’s nor brought her to a local facility to address her potential medical,” the complaint says. “Officers took no action at all to ensure Sara got the care she needed. Instead, they confiscated her medication.”
After six hours at the check point, the family was transferred to a nearby detention facility where they allege they suffered a series of “abuses and humiliation” from customs officers. After 24 hours, the whole family was put in a van and dropped off in Mexico.
“These children have grown up in the U.S. They've gone to U.S. schools and were doing well,” Woodward told The Independent. “And their mom said to me at one point that the children always wanted to know Mexico and see where they and where their parents are from. But not like this.”
Now the family is living in rural Mexico staying with relatives and lying low out of fear the children could be kidnapped by gangs once they learn they are U.S. citizens. They are also fighting to try and get back to the U.S.
“As a result, Maria and Juan are keeping the children at their relatives’ property. They cannot go to school or the doctor. They have not left the property in nearly a month,” the complaint says.
Sara urgently needs access to more medication and to see the doctors who are overseeing her care. All the while, their 17-year-old son Fernando remains in the U.S. separated from his family.
“She is due for an MRI in the U.S. right now,” Woodward said. “And then she's also struggling with the medication,” he added and explained that the family’s logistics and loss of income now make that near impossible.
Woodward said it is possible that Customs and Border Patrol made a “mistake” with the case and “didn't know what they were doing at the time.” But if it was not a mistake, he added the case was indicative of an administration with a “complete lack of humanity.”
“If this wasn't a mistake, I think it speaks to a complete lack of humanity and recognition that families deserve to belong together,” Woodward said. “That U.S. citizen children deserve to get healthcare in the U.S.”
Canadian airline ditch some routes to the U.S. as tension rises between countries
The spring equinox is here. What does that mean?
Legal showdown as Justice Department resists judge's demand for more details on deportation flights
Jackie Robinson’s page on Pentagon website removed amid DEI purge
Trump and Zelensky speak after Putin breaks word on infrastructure attacks
Lawmaker who introduced ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ bill accused of soliciting minor
