The mother of four U.S. citizen children, including a 10-year-old girl recovering from brain cancer, is pleading for her family’s return to the United States.
The family was removed from the country last month after immigration authorities deported the undocumented parents to Mexico.
Speaking Thursday from Mexico, the mother said in a video message in Spanish provided to NBC News that “we call on the elected officials of the United States to please help us come back so that our little girl continues to receive the medical services she needs.”
She first told NBC News this week what took place in early February, when the family was rushing from Rio Grande City, Texas, where they lived, to Houston, where the girl has received cancer care, for an emergency medical checkup.
On the way there, they stopped at an immigration checkpoint, the one they have passed through multiple times when they have driven to Houston. The parents were equipped with letters from their doctors and lawyers to show the officers at the checkpoint to get through. But the letters weren’t enough this time.
“We have made this trip across Texas several times to take our daughter to the hospital so that she can receive the medical attention, which is what keeps her well,” her mother said in her video message. “That’s what keeps her safe.”
Undocumented mom of U.S. citizen girl with brain cancer who was removed to Mexico pleads for family’s return
