A 10-year-old child recovering from brain cancer is among those deported from the United States, despite being a US citizen. The girl, along with her four siblings and her parents, was deported because the latter did not have residency permits.

The family’s adventure began last month when she was traveling from Rio Grande, to Houston, where doctors are monitoring the 10-year-old for an emergency medical checkup, according to NBC.

The family had made the trip at least five times before, successfully passing through the immigration checkpoint.

As attorney Danny Woodward of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy organization representing the family, said the parents in the previous cases showed letters from their doctors and lawyers to the checkpoint officials, which allowed them to pass.

However, in early February, the letters were not enough to continue their journey. When they were stopped at the checkpoint, the parents were arrested for lack of documentation. The mother, who spoke to NBC, said she tried to explain the child’s medical condition to the officers, but “they weren’t interested in hearing it.”

According to the attorney, the parents have no criminal record.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that “for privacy reasons, we do not comment on individual cases.”

A spokesman, speaking to NBC, called the reports about the family’s situation “inaccurate,” noting that “when someone is given expedited removal orders and chooses to ignore them, they will face the consequences.”

“The swelling in her brain has not gone down, her has difficulty speaking and moving”

The 10-year-old girl was diagnosed with brain cancer last year and underwent surgery to remove the tumour. “The doctors practically gave me no hope for life, but thank God, it’s a miracle,” her mother said.

However, the swelling in the girl’s brain has not yet fully subsided, causing difficulties with speech and movement on the right side of her body.

Before the family was deported from the US, the 10-year-old was regularly visiting her doctors, undergoing rehabilitation treatments and taking medication to prevent seizures.

“It’s very difficult. I don’t wish anyone to go through this,” her mother said.

Children deported with their parents

“What is happening to this family is a tragedy,” said Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project.

“This is part of a pattern in the practice we’ve seen in the Trump administration,” she added, noting that she has received numerous reports of similar cases of families where the parents lack legal residency papers but their children are U.S. citizens.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Tom Homan has said that “families can be deported together” regardless of their children’s status.

However, undocumented parents who have US-born children risk losing custody if they are apprehended by immigration authorities.

If there is no custody document designating who will care for the children if they are left behind, they may end up in the US foster care system, making it further difficult for parents to get custody of them in the future.

“They hold my children’s lives in their hands”

In addition to the parents and their 10-year-old daughter, four other children in the family, ages 15, 13, 8 and 6, were in the car. Four of the five children were born in the U.S., according to NBC.

After the arrest, the family was taken to a detention center, where the mother and her daughters were placed in a different room from the father and sons.

A few hours later, the family was boarded in a vehicle and deported to Mexico. There, they took refuge in a refugee hostel for a week before being moved to a home.

However, concerns for the safety and health of their children keep the parents awake at night, and neither child goes to school.

The 10-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son, who suffers from Long QT syndrome – a dangerous heart disorder that causes irregular heartbeats – have not received necessary medical treatment in Mexico, according to their mother.

“The authorities are holding my children’s lives in their hands,” she said, crying.

The family arrived in the U.S. from Mexico in 2013 and settled in Texas, hoping for a better life. The parents worked hard to raise their six children, but deportation shattered the life they had built.

Two weeks ago, another undocumented mother in California, caring for her 21-year-old daughter, a U.S. citizen with bone cancer, was arrested by immigration authorities and released on parole.