10-Year-Old Latina With Cerebral Palsy Detained By CBP Has Been Released

A little righteous justice got served last Friday as Federal authorities released 10-year-old Rosa Maria Hernandez from the clutches of Border Patrol agents who had detained the undocumented girl at a Texas hospital after her surgery. She was released days after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a federal lawsuit demanding her freedom.

Rosa Maria, who was recovering from a gallbladder surgery at the time of her detention, got released to her parents in Laredo, Texas. Her deportation case, however, is still pending.

“Finally, Rosa Maria has been released to her family where she belongs. This young girl and her loved ones have been through a traumatizing ordeal,” said Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro. “The United States should not be a place where children seeking life-sustaining medical care are at risk of apprehension.”

“She’s going back home to where she should’ve been all along, not government custody,” Michael Tan, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, told BuzzFeed News.

“I’m concerned that we have folks on top telling ICE, telling CBP, the gloves are off and they should feel free and unleashed to do what they want to the immigrant community and that there are no consequences for targeting a child at a hospital.”

“It’s terrifying for immigrants and people of color who don’t know whether they should be looking over their shoulder the next time they go to a hospital,” Tan said.

And that was exactly the case with Rosa Maria, whose ambulance was detained at an immigration checkpoint near Corpus Christi, Texas, on October 24th. The CBP agents allowed her to reach the hospital only because she was being accompanied by her cousin, who is a U.S. citizen.

They followed the ambulance to the Driscoll Children’s Hospital as if it were transporting a dangerous criminal and not a sick child. The Border Patrol agents even stood outside the girl’s hospital room the entire time she was there, according to Felipa De La Cruz, Hernandez’s mother. After pressuring the hospital for her discharge, she was taken into custody and put in immigration proceedings.

The CBP acknowledges places like hospitals as “sensitive locations” and advises agents to only go in after thorough consideration. This means that they can only go in if national security is in danger, something that was obviously not the case with Rosa Maria.

Article inspired by Buzzfeed News // The Undocumented Girl The Border Patrol Dogged At The Hospital Has Been Allowed To Go Home