The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today demanded the “immediate” release of a ten-year-old undocumented girl with cerebral palsy arrested in Texas and warned the government of President Donald Trump that they will file a lawsuit if it does not occur in the next few hours .
The Mexican minor Rosa María Hernández was arrested last Wednesday by Border Patrol agents (CBP) when she was discharged from a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she underwent emergency surgery. and she has been detained since then in federal custody.
“We demand that the government immediately release Rosa María from her custody and return her to her parents,” the ACLU officials wrote in a letter addressed today to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Elaine Duke, and to the acting secretary of the Department. of Health and Human Services, Eric Hargan, among others.
The civil organization warned in the letter that if the Trump Administration does not comply with this request before 2.00 p.m. (CT) on Tuesday, will take “immediate legal action” and will seek “all available resources under the law” to guarantee the release of the child.
The ACLU criticized the attitude of the immigration agents before, during and after the hospitalization of Rosa María, who was operated on at the children’s hospital to undergo an extraction of the gallbladder.
CBP stopped the ambulance that was taking the girl to the medical center for more than half an hour last Tuesday and decided to follow the vehicle under the threat that Rosa Maria “would be deported” after the surgical procedure.
In addition, the immigration agents took turns in front of the hospital room of the child for more than 24 hours, first in groups of four and then in pairs.
After the surgical operation, the Border Patrol detained the girl “without having a court order” and moved her to a juvenile detention center in the Texas city of San Antonio, a place where she can not receive the necessary medical assistance, the civil organization.
Rosa María arrived in the country at three months of age after crossing the border illegally through Nuevo Laredo (Tamaulipas, Mexico) with her parents, who settled in the border city of Laredo (Texas).
