The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit calling for the release of Rosamaria Hernandez, a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Texas last week following emergency gallbladder surgery. Rosamaria is currently being held in an immigrant detention center for unaccompanied children. According to legal experts and immigrants rights advocates, Rosamaria could be released to any of her relatives currently in the state, as is commonly done. But federal immigration officials are so far refusing to. Today, the ACLU sued:
The lawsuit alleges the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is holding Rosa Maria Hernandez in violation of her statutory and constitutional rights. The complaint also named US Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security.
“It is unconscionable to target a little girl in a children’s hospital,” said Michael Tan, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Hospitals are considered sensitive locations under Homeland Security’s own policy, and the Border Patrol should not be arresting people there—especially children. The government’s actions are unlawful, cruel, and threaten to keep parents with sick children from seeking care.”
Border Patrol stopped Rosamaria’s ambulance as it was going through a checkpoint and agents even used the ride to attempt to convince her U.S. citizen cousin to sign paperwork that would have sent the girl to Mexico, according to the New York Times. “Border Patrol officers followed Rosa Maria and entered the hospital in spite of the agency’s ‘sensitive locations’ policy.” In a letter to acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, California Senator Dianne Feinstein said that “in all of my years in public service, I have never read a set of more morally reprehensible facts.”
“It is unconscionable to target a little girl in a children’s hospital,” said Michael Tan of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Hospitals are considered sensitive locations under Homeland Security’s own policy, and Border Patrol should not be arresting people there—especially children. The government’s actions are unlawful, cruel, and threaten to keep parents with sick children from seeking care. It is also unconstitutional to deprive a child of the love and care her parents have provided her entire life.”
“Any plans for Rosa Maria’s removal from the United States should be cancelled and any proceedings against her should be administratively closed based on humanitarian grounds,” said Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro. ”The Trump administration needs to focus its resources on targeting dangerous criminals, not ill children. The president’s callous immigration policies continue to reach new, inhumane lows.”
Indeed, Rosamaria’s case is proof positive that Donald Trump’s immigration thugs are taking extremist, inhumane, and oftentimes illegal actions in order to ramp up his mass deportation force. Rosamaria poses a threat to no one, but instead the federal government is using our tax dollars to wage a racist campaign against our families and most vulnerable.
Remember, when Donald Trump, John Kelly, and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III tell you they are targeting only “bad hombres,” they’re lying to you. Just ask Rosamaria. In the meantime, you can stand in solidarity with Rosamaria and immigrant communities by tweeting your support and making a call to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and calling for her to be released to her family now.
