U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in April denied a humanitarian parole request that would have allowed a mother deported to Mexico to return to the United States to continue her daughter's specialized brain tumor treatment. The mother had waited more than ten months for an answer.

The family received three refusal letters during April, covering the mother, the father, and one noncitizen sibling. The letters did not specify reasons for the denial, which is customary for such decisions. A USCIS spokesperson said, "ICE has jurisdiction."

"It felt like a bucket of boiling water — or maybe cold water, I don't even know — was thrown at me," the mother said of receiving the denial. Immigration authorities deported the girl's parents, who were undocumented, to Mexico more than a year ago, when the girl was ten years old.

The girl and her four siblings left the United States with their parents. Three of the siblings are also U.S. citizens. The girl is now twelve.

The girl underwent emergency surgery in 2024 to remove a brain tumor and had been receiving lifesaving medical treatment in the United States until the family's removal interrupted months of that care. Medical records obtained by the family's attorney describe the tumor as caused by an unnamed "novel" condition, and specialist doctors are still studying it to tailor her treatment.

The mother said her daughter's health has deteriorated since the family began living in Mexico without access to the care she needs. U.S. specialist doctors told her that the girl's brain is not regenerating, a process she said is important to restoring motor skills and speech and to reducing the likelihood of a new tumor. "Instead of improving, my daughter's health is actually regressing," the mother said.

Last month, the girl had a seizure so intense that she fell and suffered bruising, the mother said. Since then, the girl has experienced frequent muscle spasms, especially in her partly paralyzed right arm, with pain reaching her shoulder that leaves her barely able to sleep. Dizziness and headaches have become more recurrent. An MRI and medical tests returned abnormal results at the nearest hospital, which is two and a half hours by car from the residence the family shares with the mother's elderly parents.

The mother has not found a medical provider in her part of Mexico willing to take her daughter's case, because providers are concerned they cannot obtain a comprehensive understanding of the girl's medical history. The daughter is not medically cleared to travel by plane, the mother said. Before her removal, the girl depended on a team of therapists, and the mother said all the skills her daughter had regained after surgery — including writing, speaking in complete sentences, and memory improvements — have been lost.

The mother, who previously worked as a rehabilitation technician and a certified nursing assistant, has been managing her daughter's recovery alone. "Thank God, all of that training has been of immense help to me," she said. "That can't make up for all the resources I'm missing like having the right equipment, a special education teacher who can help her with school, and nearby hospitals in case of an emergency. I don't have any of that here. As a parent, I want to move heaven and earth to help her," she said.