RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TX – In early February, a South Texas family was stopped at an immigration checkpoint while en route to Houston for a medical checkup, according to a press release from the Texas Civil Rights Project. What was supposed to be a routine trip turned into a life-altering event when they were detained and subsequently deported to Mexico. Among them were their six children, five of which are United States citizens. Two of these children have serious medical conditions.

This family, who have requested anonymity, lived in Texas for over a decade, working, paying taxes, and integrating into their community. One of their children was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, and another child has a serious heart condition, necessitating frequent medical visits. In previous instances, medical documentation allowed them to pass through immigration checkpoints. This time, it did not.

While in detention, the mother described the treatment her family received as dehumanizing. She recounted how immigration agents conducted unusually invasive searches on her children’s bodies, called them slurs, and attempted to take away their life-saving medications, despite their repeated explanations of medical necessity. The family was given a grim ultimatum: allow their children to remain in the U.S. in government custody, which typically entails entrance into the foster system, or have them deported together as a unit.

“I want my children to be able to access the medical care they need, to attend their schools, and live their lives in the only country they know as home,” she said. “They are American citizens; it is their right. But it is also their right to be raised by their parents in that home.”

The Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), which is advocating for the family, has condemned the deportation. Rochelle Garza, President of TCRP, warned that such policies are reemerging.

“[This] story is, unfortunately, not unique,” Garza said. “We witnessed devastating family separations during Trump’s first administration, causing irreversible harm to the children forced to endure these policies. Now, we are seeing these dangerous tactics resurface, and we must act before another generation suffers these injustices.”

TCRP is urging lawmakers and the public to take action against such deportations, emphasizing that the children’s citizenship should have protected them from being forcibly removed. The organization continues to push for policy changes that prevent the separation or forced deportation of U.S. citizen children.

This case raises urgent questions about the treatment of mixed-status families, especially in the wake of Trump taking his plans of ending birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court.