US immigration officials detain 10-year-old Mexican girl with cerebral palsy

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CHICAGO: US immigration officials last week followed a 10-year-old undocumented girl with cerebral palsy to a Texas hospital and detained her after surgery for deportation, advocates charged Monday.

The American Civil Liberties Union, in a letter sent to multiple government agencies in charge of refugee children, demanded Rosa Maria Hernandez be released to her parents, who live in the US city of Laredo along the Mexico border.

“Forcibly separating Rosa Maria from her family inflicts serious psychological and emotional injury on her and on her entire family,” the ACLU said in its letter.

The civil rights group gave the government until yesterday afternoon to release the child, before it would take ‘immediate legal action.’

Hernandez suffers from cerebral palsy, a brain developmental illness that affects body movement and muscle control.

Her mother brought her illegally into the US from Mexico when she was three months old for better medical care, according to US media reports. They crossed from Nuevo Laredo to Laredo – adjacent cities separated by the border.

The girl travelled last week by ambulance to a hospital in a nearby Texas city for surgery, accompanied by a US citizen adult relative.— AFP