An American nightmare

BY ERIKA DE LOS REYES

Staff Writer

It was a normal Monday morning on Feb. 3 for one Rio Grande Valley family when suddenly their 10-yearold daughter began to feel dizzy and complain of a headache.

This sent a shiver of fear down the backs of Maria and Juan Hernandez-Garcia as their daughter’s pain continued to grow now causing the left side of her body to ache.

The couple rushed their daughter along with five of her siblings into their vehicle in hopes of getting her to a hospital in Houston for specialty care as soon as possible.

They feared the worst. But when they arrived at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita, they were confronted by a new nightmare they never imagined.

Border agents detained the family despite them carrying a letter from

A Customs and Border Protection special response team member patrols at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge on Friday, Nov. 9, 2018, in Hidalgo.

Joel Martinez | jmartinez@themonitor.com

This 10-year-old girl, a U.S. citizen, is seen in an undated photo at a Houston area hospital receiving treatment for a brain tumor. She was deported in February 2025 to Mexico along with her family at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge.

Courtesy of Texas Civil Rights Project

from the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston explaining their daughters’ need for care, as well as the birth certificates of their children proving citizenship.

After the family was transferred to the Donna processing center, they had to make a terrible choice.

They could either release their children, who are American citizens, into the foster system or be deported as a family to Mexico despite their daughter’s dangerous condition.

Now, the family is at an undisclosed location in Mexico where they live in fear of cartel violence and worry about how to get their daughter the treatment she needs.

HER MEDICAL HISTORY

The Texas Civil Rights Project, or TCRP, a legal advocacy nonprofit that works for Texas communities, learned of the family’s ordeal and filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security.

In its complaint, TCRP says the 10-year-old girl had previously experienced a medical scare just two years prior in 2023, when she began to show strange symptoms.

She would complain of stomach pain and headaches, her left foot started to “turn” at an odd angle and she would pull her hair due to the pain.

Although doctors had initially told Maria and Juan that their daughter had autism, they just couldn’t shake the feeling that something else was happening.

Pseudonyms are being used for Maria and Juan to protect their identity due to danger the family could potentially face in Mexico.

In February 2024, she was rushed to a hospital after she had a seizure at home. Doctors found a tumor in her brain and decided to airlift her to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. She was in critical condition.

Maria and Juan feared for their daughter’s life as doctors gave them the worst news a parent could hear.

“At one point, Maria thought she was holding her daughter’s lifeless body in her arms,” the TCRP complaint stated.

Doctors in Houston were, however, able to perform an emergency procedure and remove the tumor. She has since had to stay under the care of a pediatric neuro-oncologist and has had continuous treatment in Houston.

Although she survived the tumor, the 10 year old now has to deal with partial paralysis on the right side of her body, a leg brace and even forgetting certain words.

She also has to take medication every day to prevent seizures. Her parents also carry an emergency nasal spray for her seizures.

But their 10-year-old girl isn’t the only member of the family suffering from a medical condition. Both their 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter were diagnosed with long QT Syndrome, a rare heart rhythm disorder, shortly after they were born.

The boy wears a heart monitor due to his condition.

HER DEPORTATION

Their ordeal continued, and escalated from there.

When they arrived at the checkpoint that Monday morning, the family would’ve never guessed they would not be returning home that day.

They began with presenting U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers with the letter from the hospital requesting “that the parents be permitted to travel in order to oversee care,” as well as the U.S. birth certificates of their children and a letter from their immigration attorney explaining that Maria and Juan were in the process of applying for visas.

After learning she’s a patient at Texas Children’s Hospital, officers detained the family for six hours at the checkpoint before they were transported to the Donna processing center.

This is where TCRP says the family endured humiliating treatment. At one point, TCRP says in their complaint, an officer allegedly attempted to take the girl’s foot brace to her mother’s protests.

Other accusations include a female officer telling their young son that he needed to masturbate to address his acne; the older daughter was told she’s “going to start burning oil soon” in reference to menstruation; and being held in rooms that were only large enough to fit two twin beds that were dirty and hot due and consistently lit “like an incubator.”

The family also struggled with CBP officers to prove their 10-year-old girl’s condition in order to retrieve her medication, but to no avail, the complaint alleged.

They complained to an unidentified woman who worked for the federal government, who told them a complaint would be filed, according to TCRP.

Matters only grew more dire once they were released into Mexico. Although they found somewhere to shelter them, “the family is still not safe” as the parents “have seen bodies on the side of the road near where they are staying,” and fear cartel violence and their children being targeted if it’s discovered they’re U.S. citizens.

TCRP concluded in its complaint that an “immediate investigation” be held into what it called “serious abuses.” In the meantime, the organization is asking that the family be granted humanitarian parole to stay in the states for their 10-year-old daughter’s medical care.

A line of cars wait to enter the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge on Friday, March 20, 2020, in Hidalgo.

Joel Martinez | jmartinez@themonitor.com