As a 10-year-old girl with brain cancer and her family traveled from Rio Grande, Texas, to Houston for an emergency checkup in early February, immigration officers detained her, her undocumented parents and her four other siblings. The parents were later deported, and the children were also sent back to Mexico.
Now, her parents wonder what will happen to the girl’s health, NBC News exclusively reported.
NBC News withheld the names of the family to protect their safety, as they are now in an area of Mexico known for kidnapping of U.S. citizens.
Four of the five children are U.S. citizens. The family traveled at least five other times between the two cities for the girl’s ongoing care associated with her pediatric brain cancer. The trip required going through an immigration checkpoint. On prior visits, the parents provided letters from lawyers and doctors, which allowed them safe passage, Danny Woodward from the Texas Civil Rights Project, which represents the family, told NBC.
Officers detained her parents when they failed to show correct documentation of legal immigration status. While the mom pled with authorities about her daughter’s health, “they weren’t interested in hearing that,” she recalled to NBC News in an exclusive interview.
Other than not having “valid immigration status in the U.S.,” the parents do not have a criminal history, according to Woodward.
A lawyer with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an email: “For privacy reasons, we do not comment on individual cases.”
After being diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in 2024, the girl underwent surgery. Doctors “practically gave me no hope of life for her, but thank God, she’s a miracle,” her mother said.
But the girl’s health is still precarious. She has some brain swelling and struggles with speech and movement on the right side of her body. Before being removed from the U.S., she visited doctors regularly, took anti-convulsant medications and participated in rehabilitation to help her recovery.
“It’s a very difficult thing,” her mother said. “I don’t wish anyone to go through this.”
The family was placed in detention, with the mother and daughters separated from the father and sons, according to the mother. The girl’s mother watched her sick child and felt hopeless.
“The fear is horrible,” she said. “I almost can’t explain it, but it’s something frustrating, very tough.”
The family stayed in a shelter in Mexico for a week and are now in a house. The children haven’t been able to go to school, and they live with daily safety concerns, the mother told NBC News.
The Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, has said, for families with mixed immigration status, undocumented parents have to decide whether to bring their children when being deported or leave them. Unless the parents have a power-of-attorney document or a guardianship stipulating who will care for the children in the U.S., they will go to foster care, making it difficult for parents to regain custody.
When asked about mass deportations causing families to be separated, Homan said, “families can be deported together.”
The family’s 15-year-old boy also has long QT syndrome, a heart condition that causes irregular and quick heartbeats that can be life-threatening, according to the Mayo Clinic. He also has not been able to receive the health care he needs in Mexico, his mom said.
“The authorities have my children’s lives in their hands,” she said.