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It was a highway exit sign that unveiled their final destination: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They traveled in the rear compartment of an government transport – their personal belongings confiscated and travel documents held by agents. The mother and her US citizen offspring, one of whom is fighting metastatic kidney disease, had no knowledge about where federal agents were transporting them.

The initial encounter

The family unit had been taken into custody at an federal appointment near New Orleans on April 24. After being prevented from speaking with their lawyer, which they would eventually argue in legal documents violated their rights, the family was relocated 200 miles to this rural town in the state's interior.

"Our location remained undisclosed," the mother explained, answering inquiries about her experience for the premier instance after her family's case received coverage. "Authorities directed that I couldn't ask questions, I questioned our location, but they offered no answer."

The deportation procedure

Rosario, 25, and her two children were forcibly removed to Honduras in the early morning hours the following day, from a small aviation facility in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for extensive immigration enforcement. The location houses a unique detention center that has been referred to as a legal "black hole" by legal representatives with clients inside, and it connects directly onto an airport tarmac.

While the detention facility contains solely adult male detainees, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have been processed at the Alexandria airport on government charter flights during the opening period of the present government. Certain people, like Rosario, are detained at secret lodging before being sent abroad or moved to other detention sites.

Temporary confinement

The mother didn't remember which Alexandria hotel her family was directed toward. "I just remember we entered through a garage entrance, not the main entrance," she remembered.

"We were treated like captives in accommodation," Rosario said, explaining: "The young ones would try to go toward the door, and the female guards would get mad."

Treatment disruptions

The mother's child Romeo was diagnosed with metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "consistent and vital medical intervention" at a children's healthcare facility in New Orleans before his apprehension. His female sibling, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was detained with her relatives.

Rosario "begged" guards at the hotel to grant access to a telephone the night the family was there, she stated in federal court documents. She was eventually permitted one brief phone call 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 additional detainees also detained at the hotel.

Unknown to Rosario, her lawyers and advocates had looked extensively after hours to locate where the two families had been kept, in an attempt to obtain legal assistance. But they could not be found. The lawyers had made numerous petitions to immigration authorities right after the apprehension to stop the transfer and find her position. They had been consistently disregarded, according to court documents.

"This processing center is itself fundamentally opaque," said an expert, who is handling the case in ongoing litigation. "But in situations involving families, they will typically not transport them to the main center, but put them in secret lodging in proximity.

Court claims

At the core of the litigation filed on behalf of Rosario and another family is the assertion that immigration authorities have violated their own regulations governing the care for US citizen children with parents facing removal. The policies state that authorities "should afford" parents "sufficient time" to make choices about the "wellbeing or relocation" of their underage dependents.

Federal authorities have not yet answered Rosario's claims in court. The Department of Homeland Security did not answer specific inquiries about the assertions.

The aviation facility incident

"Once we got there, it was a mostly deserted facility," Rosario recalled. "Exclusively removal vans were pulling up."

"There were multiple vans with other mothers and children," she said.

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

"That portion was traumatic," she said. "My children kept asking why everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were criminals. I said it was just normal protocol."

The aircraft boarding

The family was then compelled to board an aircraft, legal documents state. At around this period, according to filings, an immigration field office director finally replied to Rosario's attorney – telling them a deportation delay had been refused. Rosario said she had not provided approval for her two US citizen children to be deported abroad.

Attorneys said the timing of the arrests may not have been random. They said the appointment – changed multiple times without reason – may have been timed to coincide with a deportation flight to Honduras the following day.

"Authorities appear to funnel as many detainees as they can toward that facility so they can populate the aircraft and deport them," commented a legal advocate.

The aftermath

The complete ordeal has resulted in permanent damage, according to the legal action. Rosario continues to live with anxiety regarding threats and abduction in Honduras.

In a earlier communication, the government department stated that Rosario "chose" to bring her children to the federal appointment in April, and was inquired whether she preferred authorities to relocate the minors with someone safe. The organization also stated that Rosario elected departure with her children.

Ruby, who was couldn't finish her academic term in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "facing substantial emotional difficulties", according to the litigation.

Romeo, who has now become five years old, was could not obtain vital and necessary healthcare in Honduras. He temporarily visited the US, without his mother, to continue treatment.

"The boy's worsening medical status and the interruption of his care have created for the mother significant distress and psychological pain," the court documents state.

*Names of individuals have been modified.