Deported family seeks reentry for U.S. child
Girl needs treatment aft4er brain tumor surgery
By: Eduardo Cuevas
USA Today
..... An 11-year-old Texas girl recovering from brain surgery hasn't been able to see her doctor for seven months.
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The girl, an American citizen, was arrested with her parents in February [2025] while driving to a doctor's appointment for follow-up after surgery to remove a brain tumor. They were quickly deported to her parents; native Mexico early in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
..... On September 18, [2025] her lawyer stood with Democratic lawmakers outside the U.S. Capitol, asking that the girl, whom they called "Sara," be allowed back into the country with her parents for treatment.
..... "Citizens should be protected, not abandoned" Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, told reporters. "every day Sara is outside the United States is a day she goes without critic lifesaving treatment."
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USA Today is not using the family member's names due to safety concerns in Mexico.
..... The family, originally from the Rio Grande Valley, has sought humanitarian parole, which allows people outside the country to enter the United States for "urgent humanitarian reasons." They are waiting to hear back from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services after submitting their application, their lawyer said.
..... The agency told USA today that, as a matter of practice, ti doesn't comment on individual cases.
..... In a statement to USA today, the Department of Homeland Security denied it deported American children but said the parents had prior removal orders for trying to illegally enter the country twice before. the parents then chose to take their children to Mexico.
..... "As a U.S. citizen, the child could certainly return to the U.S. if the parents so chose for her to receive treatment in the United States," said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant Secretary for public affairs at DHS.
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McLaughlin said the parents' humanitarian parole application, filed this summer, [2025] is pending review. The process takes 120 to 180 days, she said.
..... Family lawyers have said the parents have no criminal record. They seek parole for urgent medical concerns of their U.S. citizen daughter, who requires emergency care with support from non-citizen family members.
..... "this is kind of what humanitarian parole is for" Danny Woodward, the family's lawyer and a policy attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, told USA today.
..... He said, "An American citizen just needs to be with her mom because the situation is so dire."
..... On February 3, [2025] the girl, her parents and four of her five siblings were detained at a checkpoint in south Texas. While federal officials said her parents don't have legal status, nearly all of their children are American citizens.
..... Amid their daughter's treatment at Texas Children;s Hospital to remove the brain tumor, the parents crossed though the customs and Border Protection checkpoint in Sarita multiple times before, their lawyers said. They carried a hospital letter explaining their daughter's conditions, as well as their children's birth certificates and evidence showing they were applying for visas.
..... CBP officers detained the family for hours before placing them in harsh conditions in immigrant detention, lawyers said in an inspector general's complaint. CBP has denied any mistreatment.
..... Agents released the family across the border, where lawyers said the family feared for their safety. they eventually made their way to relative sin a rural part of Mexico.
..... The 11-year-old girl lacks Mexican citizenship, so she's unable to access Mexico's universal health care system, Woodward said.