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

They traveled in the back of an federal transport truck – their possessions seized and travel documents not returned. The mother and her US citizen offspring, including a child who battles stage 4 kidney cancer, had no knowledge about where federal agents were transporting them.

The initial encounter

The family members had been detained at an immigration check-in near New Orleans on April 24. After being prevented from consulting their attorney, which they would eventually argue in official complaints breached due process, the family was transported 200 miles to this small community in the state's interior.

"Our location remained undisclosed," Rosario stated, answering inquiries about her ordeal for the first time after her family's case gained attention. "They instructed me that I couldn't ask questions, I questioned our location, but they offered no answer."

The forced departure

The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her minor 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 mass deportation operations. The site houses a unique detention center that has been described as a legal "black hole" by legal representatives with detained individuals, and it leads straight onto an runway area.

While the detention facility holds exclusively adult male detainees, obtained records indicate at least 3,142 mothers and children have passed through the Alexandria airport on immigration transports during the opening period of the present government. Various detainees, like Rosario, are confined to secret lodging before being deported or transferred to other holding facilities.

Temporary confinement

Rosario could not recall which Alexandria hotel her family was brought to. "I recall we came in through a vehicle access point, not the main entrance," she stated.

"Our situation resembled detainees in lodging," Rosario said, noting: "The children would try to go toward the door, and the female guards would show irritation."

Treatment disruptions

Rosario's four-year-old son Romeo was diagnosed with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had metastasized to his lungs, and was receiving "regular and critical medical intervention" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his detention by authorities. His sister, Ruby, also a American national, was seven when she was apprehended with her mother and brother.

Rosario "begged" guards at the hotel to allow her to use a telephone the night the family was there, she reported in official complaints. She was finally allowed one short conversation to her father and notified him she was in Alexandria.

The nighttime investigation

The family was awakened at 2 a.m. the next morning, Rosario said, and taken directly to the airport in a van with additional detainees also held at the hotel.

Unbeknownst to the mother, her lawyers and supporters had conducted overnight searches to find where the two families had been detained, in an bid for legal intervention. But they remained undiscovered. The attorneys had made multiple applications to immigration authorities right after the arrest to block the deportation and determine her location. They had been consistently disregarded, according to official records.

"The Louisiana location is itself essentially a void," said a legal representative, who is providing legal counsel in active court cases. "But in situations involving families, they will frequently avoid bringing to the primary location, but put them in unidentified accommodations near the facility.

Legal arguments

At the heart of the legal action filed on behalf of Rosario and other individuals is the claim that government entities have ignored established rules governing the handling of US citizen children with parents subject to deportation. The guidelines 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 allegations legally. The federal department did not address specific inquiries about the claims.

The airport experience

"Upon reaching the location, it was a largely vacant terminal," Rosario recalled. "Exclusively removal vans were pulling up."

"Numerous transports appeared with additional families," she said.

They were confined to the transport at the airport for four and a half hours, seeing other vans approach with men shackled at their wrists and ankles.

"That segment was distressing," she said. "My children kept asking why everyone was restrained hand and foot ... if they were wrongdoers. I said it was just part of the process."

The plane journey

The family was then forced onto an aircraft, official records state. At around this period, according to records, an immigration local official eventually responded to Rosario's attorney – notifying them a removal halt had been refused. Rosario said she had not consented at any point for her two American-born offspring to be sent to another country.

Advocates said the date of the detention may not have been coincidental. They said the check-in – rescheduled three times without reason – may have been scheduled to align with a transport plane to Honduras the next day.

"They seem to direct as many detainees as they can toward that airport so they can populate the aircraft and deport them," stated a representative.

The aftermath

The complete ordeal has caused lasting consequences, according to the lawsuit. Rosario still experiences concerns about exploitation and kidnapping in Honduras.

In a previously released statement, the government department claimed that Rosario "decided" to bring her children to the required meeting in April, and was asked if she wanted authorities to place the children with someone secure. The organization also asserted that Rosario chose to be deported with her children.

Ruby, who was couldn't finish her academic term in the US, is at risk of "learning setbacks" and is "experiencing significant mental health issues", according to the court documents.

Romeo, who has now turned five, was unable to access specialized and life-saving healthcare in Honduras. He made a short trip to the US, without his mother, to resume care.

"Romeo's deteriorating health and the halt in his therapy have created for the mother significant distress and emotional turmoil," the legal action alleges.

*Names of family members have been altered.