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The revelation came from a highway exit sign that unveiled their end point: Alexandria, Louisiana.

They traveled in the cargo area of an government transport – their possessions seized and passports held by agents. The mother and her US citizen offspring, one of whom faces stage 4 kidney cancer, had no knowledge about where immigration officials were transporting them.

The detention

The family unit had been apprehended at an immigration check-in near New Orleans on April 24. When denied access from speaking with their lawyer, which they would eventually argue in official complaints violated their rights, the family was relocated 200 miles to this modest settlement in the heart of the region.

"I received no information about our destination," she recounted, providing details about her situation for the premier instance after her family's case received coverage. "They instructed me that I couldn't ask questions, I asked where we were headed, but they offered no answer."

The forced departure

The 25-year-old mother, 25, and her minor children were compulsorily transported to Honduras in the middle of the night the following day, from a rural airport in Alexandria that has transformed into a focal point for mass deportation operations. The location houses a specialized holding facility that has been called a legal "vacuum" by legal representatives with people held there, and it connects directly onto an airport tarmac.

While the confinement area holds exclusively grown men, leaked documents indicate at least 3,142 women and children have passed through the Alexandria airport on government charter flights during the first 100 days of the existing leadership. Certain people, like Rosario, are detained at undisclosed hotels before being sent abroad or transferred to other detention sites.

Lodging restrictions

The mother didn't remember which Alexandria hotel her family was brought to. "I recall we came in through a vehicle access point, not the primary access," she remembered.

"We were treated like prisoners in a room," Rosario said, adding: "The children would attempt to approach the door, and the security personnel would show irritation."

Treatment disruptions

Rosario's young boy Romeo was diagnosed with advanced renal carcinoma at the age of two, which had reached his lungs, and was receiving "regular and critical life-saving cancer treatment" at a pediatric medical center in New Orleans before his apprehension. His sister, Ruby, also a citizen of the United States, was seven when she was taken into custody with her relatives.

Rosario "pleaded with" guards at the hotel to grant access to a telephone the night the family was there, she stated in legal filings. She was eventually permitted one brief phone call to her father and told him she was in Alexandria.

The overnight search

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

Unknown to Rosario, her legal team and advocates had looked extensively after hours to locate where the two families had been held, in an attempt to obtain legal assistance. But they were not located. The legal representatives had made numerous petitions to immigration authorities immediately after the arrest to prevent removal and establish her whereabouts. They had been regularly overlooked, according to legal filings.

"The Louisiana location is itself essentially a void," said a legal representative, who is handling the case in active court cases. "But in situations involving families, they will often not take them to the facility itself, but accommodate them at unidentified accommodations close by.

Court claims

At the center of the lawsuit filed on behalf of Rosario and another family is the claim that federal agencies have breached internal policies governing the handling of US citizen children with parents under removal proceedings. The policies state that authorities "must provide" parents "adequate chance" to make choices about the "welfare or movement" of their young offspring.

Federal authorities have not yet addressed Rosario's claims in court. The Department of Homeland Security did not answer comprehensive queries about the claims.

The aviation facility incident

"Once we got there, it was a very empty airport," Rosario remembered. "Just immigration transports were arriving."

"There were multiple vans with other mothers and children," she said.

They were kept in the van at the airport for four and a half hours, watching other vehicles arrive with men shackled at their limbs.

"That segment was distressing," she said. "My children kept questioning why everyone was chained hand and foot ... if they were wrongdoers. I explained it was just normal protocol."

The plane journey

The family was then forced onto an aircraft, legal documents state. At roughly then, according to documents, an immigration regional supervisor ultimately answered to Rosario's attorney – notifying them a deportation delay had been denied. Rosario said she had not agreed ever for her two American-born offspring to be removed to Honduras.

Attorneys said the timing of the arrests may not have been coincidental. They said the check-in – changed multiple times without reason – may have been timed to coincide with a deportation flight to Honduras the next day.

"They seem to direct as many individuals as they can toward that facility so they can fill the flight and remove them," stated a attorney.

The consequences

The complete ordeal has caused irreparable harm, according to the legal action. Rosario continues to live with fear of extortion and abduction in Honduras.

In a prior announcement, the government department stated that Rosario "elected" to bring her children to the federal appointment in April, and was questioned about authorities to relocate the minors with someone secure. The agency also asserted that Rosario decided on removal with her children.

Ruby, who was didn't complete her educational period in the US, is at risk of "educational decline" and is "undergoing serious psychological challenges", according to the court documents.

Romeo, who has now turned five, was unable to access critical and essential healthcare in Honduras. He made a short trip to the US, without his mother, to proceed with therapy.

"The child's declining condition and the interruption of his care have caused Rosario tremendous anxiety and mental suffering," the legal action alleges.

*Names of people involved have been changed.