Undocumented Youth Reunited With Parents After Detention

Rosa Maria Hernandez, an undocumented 10-year old girl with cerebral palsy, has been reunited with her parents in Laredo, Texas. She was being held for ten days in a San Antonio juvenile detention center.

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Hernandez, who was born in Mexico, was brought by her parents to the United States when she was three months old, seeking adequate medical help for her cerebral palsy symptoms. 

She was released yesterday just after U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro, who presides over San Antonio, tweeted that the Department of Health and Human Services and the contractor that manages the detention center “are refusing to let me meet with Rosa Maria.” 

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, saying Hernandez’s imprisonment was unlawful and “causing physical and mental trauma.” The organization also brought attention to the legal case by starting a hashtag campaign — #freerosa — to demand Hernandez’s return home.

Rosa was allowed to return home to her family near Laredo, Texas. Authorities have yet to make a decision of whether to proceed with her deportation back to Mexico.

“While this is welcome news, Rosa Maria’s future remains uncertain,” Castro said in a statement. “The Trump administration has not made clear whether they will proceed with deportation proceedings against her … The United States should not be a place where children seeking life-sustaining medical care are at risk of apprehension.”

Last week, Hernandez’s ambulance was searched at a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, patrol checkpoint near Laredo as she was being rushed to a local hospital for emergency gallbladder surgery.

Border agents found that Rosa was undocumented and escorted her ambulance to Driscoll Hospital in Corpus Christi.

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ICE agents then kept watch outside of the child’s hospital room. As soon as she was medically released on Oct. 25, they transported her several hours away to a San Antonio detention center, despite doctors’ warnings that she should recuperate at home with her family.

Rosa's mom, Felipa de la Cruz, is also living in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. Judge Fred Biery, the federal district court judge who is presiding over the case, asked the government why “Felipa De La Cruz has not been apprehended and subject to the same deportation procedures as apparently are underway for RMH (Rosa Maria Hernandez). Biery wrote that the court has “great empathy” for Hernandez and her mom, but suggested that “Mother and daughter then could be successfully reunited in their home country.”

ACLU attorney Michael Tan asked, “The concern I have is, is this the new normal? I’m worried that we’re going to see more cases like Rosa’s.” He added in a comment to The Guardian that if Congress passes the proposed Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (Dream) Act, Rosa Maria and others like her would have a path to legal status.