A deported mother has been officially denied a humanitarian parole request to return to the United States for her 11-year-old daughter’s specialized medical care. As detailed by UNILAD, the girl, a U.S. citizen currently in Mexico, is battling a rare brain tumor that requires complex monitoring and treatment. Her condition has worsened significantly since the family was forced to leave the country.
The family’s ordeal began in February 2025, when the parents were detained near the Rio Grande Valley in Texas while on the way to take their daughter to the hospital. Immigration officials drove the parents and their four children into Mexico the following day, citing previously issued expedited removal orders. The girl had undergone emergency surgery in 2024 to remove the tumor and was actively receiving lifesaving care at the time of the deportation.
The mother, withholding both her name and her daughter’s name for safety reasons, has since reported that her daughter’s health is regressing rather than improving. The girl has begun suffering intense seizures, including one last month so severe that she fell and sustained bruising. She also experiences painful spasms in one arm, which has become partially paralyzed, and specialist doctors in the United States have informed the family that her brain is not regenerating as expected, significantly increasing the risk that the tumor will return.
The US government’s denial left the family with few legal options
Finding adequate care in Mexico has proven difficult. The girl’s medical history is so complex, and the tumor so rare, that local providers have been unwilling to take on her case. Meanwhile, any progress the girl had made in speech and memory while receiving treatment in the United States has been lost, according to her mother.
She is also not medically cleared to fly, further narrowing the family’s options. “As a parent, I want to move heaven and earth to help her,” the mother said. “But receiving the news that it couldn’t be done, that everything had been denied, and on top of that, getting the news that my daughter wasn’t doing well, it was even more stressful.”
The mother, father, and one sibling who is not a U.S. citizen all received denial letters for their humanitarian parole applications, but the letters provided no reason for the decision. A spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services noted that ICE holds jurisdiction over parole decisions for individuals who have previously been deported. Amid broader scrutiny of ICE enforcement practices, including New York’s recent restrictions on federal agents, the case has drawn attention from legal advocates and lawmakers alike.
Attorney Danny Woodward of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which has been supporting the family, said they can attempt to reapply for humanitarian parole in the future. However, the process costs more than $1,000 per application and requires significant documentation, making it a costly and demanding undertaking. Under standard immigration guidelines, humanitarian parole is a discretionary tool that allows an individual who is otherwise inadmissible to enter the United States temporarily for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.
While the family can file a motion to reconsider or reopen the case, or submit a new application with new facts, there is no guarantee of a different outcome. The denials come as Trump’s second-term approval rating has reached a new low, a trend covered amid ongoing criticism of his administration’s immigration policies. The Texas Civil Rights Project confirmed the family’s only path forward is a costly reapplication process.
Published: May 18, 2026 07:45 pm