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It was a interstate indicator that disclosed their end point: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They traveled in the cargo area of an government transport – their personal belongings taken and passports retained by authorities. The mother and her two children with citizenship, including a child who battles metastatic kidney disease, remained unaware about where authorities were taking them.

The detention

The family unit had been taken into custody at an federal appointment near New Orleans on April 24. After being prevented from contacting legal counsel, which they would eventually argue in official complaints ignored legal protections, the family was transported 200 miles to this modest settlement in the state's interior.

"They never told me where I was going," she recounted, responding to questions about her experience for the initial occasion after her family's case became public. "They instructed me that I shouldn't inquire, I questioned our location, but they offered no answer."

The removal process

The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her minor children were involuntarily deported to Honduras in the pre-dawn period the following day, from a regional airfield in Alexandria that has emerged as a hub for extensive immigration enforcement. The site houses a unique detention center that has been called a legal "vacuum" by attorneys with people held there, and it leads straight onto an flight line.

While the confinement area contains solely adult male detainees, confidential information indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have traveled via the Alexandria airport on government charter flights during the first 100 days of the current administration. Some individuals, like Rosario, are confined to unidentified accommodations before being deported or transferred to other holding facilities.

Lodging restrictions

The mother didn't remember which Alexandria hotel her family was brought to. "I just remember we came in through a vehicle access point, not the front door," she remembered.

"Our situation resembled prisoners in a room," Rosario said, explaining: "The children would attempt to approach the door, and the security personnel would become angry."

Medical concerns

The mother's young boy Romeo was identified with metastatic kidney disease at the age of two, which had spread to his lungs, and was receiving "ongoing and essential cancer care" at a specialized children's hospital in New Orleans before his detention by authorities. His female sibling, Ruby, also a US citizen, was seven when she was taken into custody with her relatives.

Rosario "pleaded with" guards at the hotel to permit utilization of a telephone the night the family was there, she claimed in official complaints. She was eventually permitted one limited communication to her father and notified him she was in Alexandria.

The after-hours locating effort

The family was woken up at 2 a.m. the subsequent day, Rosario said, and transported immediately to the airport in a transport vehicle with additional detainees also held at the hotel.

Unbeknownst to the mother, her legal team and advocates had searched throughout the night to identify where the two families had been held, in an bid for legal assistance. But they remained undiscovered. The legal representatives had made multiple applications to immigration authorities immediately after the detention to block the deportation and find her position. They had been regularly overlooked, according to official records.

"The Alexandria staging facility is itself already a black hole," said an expert, who is representing Rosario in ongoing litigation. "However, when dealing involving families, they will often not take them to the facility itself, but place them in unidentified accommodations in proximity.

Court claims

At the center of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Rosario and other individuals is the allegation that government entities have breached internal policies governing the care for US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The guidelines state that authorities "must provide" parents "sufficient time" to make choices about the "welfare or movement" of their underage dependents.

Federal authorities have not yet answered Rosario's claims in court. The federal department did not respond to specific inquiries about the allegations.

The airport experience

"When we arrived, it was a mostly deserted facility," Rosario remembered. "Only deportation vehicles were arriving."

"There were multiple vans with more detainees," she said.

They were held in the vehicle at the airport for four and a half hours, seeing other vehicles arrive with men restrained at their hands and feet.

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

The aircraft boarding

The family was then compelled to board an aircraft, official records state. At around this period, according to documents, an immigration field office director ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – informing them a stay of removal had been rejected. Rosario said she had not agreed ever for her two American-born offspring to be sent to another country.

Attorneys said the scheduling of the apprehension may not have been coincidental. They said the appointment – postponed repeatedly without justification – may have been arranged to match with a removal aircraft to Honduras the next day.

"They seem to direct as many detainees as they can toward that airport so they can fill the flight and deport them," explained a legal advocate.

The consequences

The whole situation has led to irreparable harm, according to the court case. Rosario still experiences fear of extortion and abduction in Honduras.

In a earlier communication, the federal agency asserted that Rosario "elected" to bring her children to the federal appointment in April, and was asked if she wanted authorities to assign the kids with someone secure. The agency also claimed that Rosario elected departure with her children.

Ruby, who was didn't complete her school year in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "facing substantial mental health issues", according to the litigation.

Romeo, who has now turned five, was denied specialized and life-saving medical care in Honduras. He briefly returned to the US, without his mother, to resume care.

"The child's declining condition and the halt in his therapy have created for the mother significant distress and mental suffering," the legal action alleges.

*Names of family members have been modified.