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The revelation came from a interstate indicator that revealed their ultimate location: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They traveled in the cargo area of an federal transport truck – their possessions confiscated and identification not returned. Rosario and her two children with citizenship, including a child who is fighting stage 4 kidney cancer, lacked information about where federal agents were transporting them.

The initial encounter

The family unit had been detained at an federal appointment near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from speaking with their lawyer, which they would later claim in official complaints violated their rights, the family was relocated 200 miles to this small community in the state's interior.

"They never told me where I was going," she recounted, answering inquiries about her experience for the initial occasion after her family's case received coverage. "They instructed me that I must not seek information, I asked where we were headed, but they didn't respond."

The removal process

Rosario, 25, and her two children were involuntarily deported to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the next day, from a regional airfield in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for mass deportation operations. The site houses a unique detention center that has been called a legal "void" by legal representatives with people held there, and it opens immediately onto an runway area.

While the detention facility holds exclusively male adults, confidential information indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have traveled via the Alexandria airport on federal aircraft during the initial three months of the current administration. Various detainees, like Rosario, are confined to unidentified accommodations before being deported or transferred to other detention sites.

Hotel detention

The mother didn't remember which Alexandria hotel her family was brought to. "I just remember we entered through a parking area, not the main entrance," she recalled.

"Our situation resembled detainees in lodging," Rosario said, explaining: "My kids would move closer to the door, and the security personnel would show irritation."

Medical concerns

The mother's young boy Romeo was identified with stage 4 kidney cancer at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "ongoing and essential medical intervention" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his detention by authorities. His sister, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was detained with her relatives.

Rosario "pleaded with" guards at the hotel to permit utilization of a telephone the night the family was there, she reported in federal court documents. She was eventually permitted one limited communication to her father and told him she was in Alexandria.

The nighttime investigation

The family was roused at 2 a.m. the following morning, Rosario said, and transported immediately to the airport in a transport vehicle with other individuals also confined in the hotel.

Unbeknownst to the mother, her lawyers and advocates had searched throughout the night to find where the two families had been held, in an bid for legal action. But they could not be found. The legal representatives had made multiple applications to immigration authorities right after the arrest to stop the transfer and establish her whereabouts. They had been consistently disregarded, according to court documents.

"The Alexandria staging facility is itself essentially a void," said a legal representative, who is handling the case in ongoing litigation. "But in situations involving families, they will typically not transport them to the facility itself, but accommodate them at unidentified accommodations close by.

Judicial contentions

At the heart of the legal action filed on behalf of Rosario and additional plaintiffs is the assertion that federal agencies have breached internal policies governing the handling of US citizen children with parents subject to deportation. The directives state that authorities "are required to grant" parents "a reasonable opportunity" to make decisions regarding the "welfare or movement" of their minor children.

Immigration officials have not yet responded to Rosario's allegations legally. The government agency did not respond to detailed questions about the assertions.

The airport experience

"Upon reaching the location, it was a very empty airport," Rosario stated. "Just immigration transports were coming in."

"Several vehicles were present with other mothers and children," she said.

They were kept in the van at the airport for over four hours, seeing other transports come with men shackled at their wrists and ankles.

"That experience was traumatic," she said. "The kids kept asking why everyone was chained hand and foot ... if they were criminals. I told them it was just part of the process."

The plane journey

The family was then made to enter an aircraft, court filings state. At around this period, according to filings, an immigration field office director finally replied to Rosario's attorney – informing them a removal halt had been rejected. Rosario said she had not provided approval for her two US citizen children to be sent to another country.

Legal representatives said the date of the detention may not have been random. They said the check-in – postponed repeatedly without reason – may have been arranged to match with a deportation flight to Honduras the subsequent day.

"Officials apparently channel as many cases as they can toward that facility so they can occupy the plane and remove them," commented a legal advocate.

The consequences

The whole situation has caused lasting consequences, according to the lawsuit. Rosario persistently faces fear of extortion and abduction in Honduras.

In a prior announcement, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Rosario "decided" to bring her children to the required meeting in April, and was inquired whether she preferred authorities to place the children with someone safe. The department also asserted that Rosario elected departure with her children.

Ruby, who was didn't complete her educational period in the US, is at risk of "academic regression" and is "undergoing serious psychological challenges", according to the legal proceedings.

Romeo, who has now turned five, was unable to access critical and essential medical care in Honduras. He made a short trip to the US, without his mother, to continue treatment.

"Romeo's deteriorating health and the interruption of his care have caused Rosario significant distress and psychological pain," the court documents state.

*Names of family members have been changed.