A Honduran teenager was having contractions when she waded across the Rio Grande. She gave birth to her child — conceived during rape — at a Texas hospital, with border patrol agents waiting outside the delivery room.
Two days later, and before she had a chance to receive her baby’s U.S. birth certificate, she and her newborn were expelled back to Mexico. Agents allegedly dropped them off near the border with just the clothes on their backs, and with none of the supplies hospital personnel had provided for the newborn, including diapers and formula.
Now living in Tucker, the young Honduran migrant is suing the federal government over her treatment at the border.
The lawsuit, filed last month in Atlanta’s U.S. District Court, seeks damages on behalf of both the mother and her child, who was a U.S. citizen by birth when they were expelled by border patrol agents in July 2021. U.S. immigration law does not authorize the expulsion of people who were born in the United States.
The case comes amid a renewed spotlight on birthright citizenship, which President-elect Donald Trump vowed to undo in a Dec. 8 appearance on “Meet the Press,” his first sit-down network broadcast interview since winning a new term as president.
“We’re going to end that because it’s ridiculous,” Trump said. He did not specify how he would overcome the steep legal hurdles that such a policy change would run against.
The events at the heart of the Atlanta federal court complaint, which only identifies the immigrant mother and child by their initials, took place in the summer of 2021. A contemporaneous Spanish-language report from Telemundo Atlanta corroborates the mother’s account.
The Honduran mother is one of many who were sent back to Mexico border towns without birth certificates for their U.S.-born babies in 2020 and 2021. During that stretch, a Trump-era public health policy triggered by the pandemic allowed for the rapid expulsion of most people who crossed the border illegally. Four mothers who were detained and expelled to Mexico within days of giving birth in the U.S. during 2020 filed their own lawsuit earlier this year, citing extraordinary trauma.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, the legal advocacy nonprofit that is representing the Honduran mother and her child, declined to comment for this story. Similarly, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. The spokesperson would not answer a question about how many U.S. citizen newborns have been expelled to Mexico under the rule invoked by Trump and maintained by President Joe Biden.
Likewise, the spokesman would not say how many childbirths have taken place in CBP custody.
Two crossings, two expulsions with childbirth in between
The now 22-year-old mother is identified in the complaint with the initials M.M.B.B.
She first entered the U.S. on or about July 1, 2021, alongside her mother and two minor sisters. The lawsuits says she was then eight months pregnant with her first child and intended to apply for asylum protections in the U.S., having fled her home country of Honduras because she faced persecution there.
Shortly after crossing, the family was apprehended by Border Patrol and separated. The Honduran migrant was taken to a government facility and, once there, allegedly told agents that she had a high-risk pregnancy due to a metabolic disorder and asked to see a doctor. Her request went unanswered, according to the lawsuit.
A policy change later adopted by CBP requires on-site medical staff at agency facilities along the southwest border to offer medical assessments to all pregnant women in custody.
Instead, at around 1 a.m. on July 2, 2021, M.M.B.B. was driven to the international bridge between Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico, according to the lawsuit.
“When she realized she was being expelled to Mexico, Plaintiff Mother became frantic and began crying, begging the agents not to send her to Mexico,” the complaint says. “She cried out to them that she was pregnant, in pain, and had no one to help her in Piedras Negras.”
The woman was expelled under a public health rule known as Title 42, which was invoked by Trump in March 2020. It allowed border officials to quickly expel migrants who crossed the border illegally, including those seeking asylum.
Unlike formal deportations, which come about at the end of a time-consuming legal process in the U.S., Title 42 expulsions don’t subject migrants to years-long bans and the risk of prison time if they’re caught crossing illegally again. So, many expelled migrants simply tried crossing again.
That’s what the young Honduran national did.
After sitting on the international bridge for hours, M.M.B.B. began to feel contractions so intense that she started vomiting, according to the complaint. Seeing no alternative, she returned to the U.S. by crossing the Rio Grande, the lawsuit says.
Around 4 a.m. on July 2, 2021, M.M.B.B. entered the country again near Eagle Pass, Texas. By then, she was experiencing stronger contractions, according to the complaint, and had lost a shoe in the mud of the riverbank, making it difficult to walk. She soon encountered law enforcement, who called an ambulance. A CBP agent rode with her to Fort Duncan Medical Center.
The migrant’s son, identified as N.B. in the complaint, was born several hours later. A doctor took a picture of him and sent it to a family friend in Georgia, at the mother’s request.
According to the complaint, the hospital medical staff had expressed concern about the new mom’s medical condition because she was weak from chronic anemia. She understood the doctors wanted her to remain hospitalized for several days to regain strength, the complaint states.
Two days later, with simple movements still painful for the mother, CBP agents allegedly insisted that she be discharged. Starting that moment through the rest of her time in CBP custody, the Honduran mother repeatedly asked for assistance in obtaining her son’s U.S. birth certificate, according to the lawsuit, which says the agents were no help and she left the hospital without the document.
According to the agency, it is “not in a position to ensure that the parent(s) leave its custody with a birth certificate,” noting in a directive on its website that the document is generated by hospital, counties, or state vital records departments.
Prior to discharge, hospital personnel gave the new mother diapers, baby clothes, formula, and other supplies. Federal agents then drove her and her son to a different CBP facility from the one in which she had previously been held, and made them wait for hours in a cold room, according to the lawsuit.
Later, agents allegedly left mother and son on the international bridge with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.
“Plaintiff Mother was overwhelmed and very frightened,” the complaint says. “She had no idea how she would care for or feed” her child, and “she was in substantial physical pain still from her recent childbirth and now did not have access to pan relief medication, shelter, restroom facilities, and other basic necessities. She began crying hysterically.”
The mother received help from passerby when a local woman offered to shelter her and the baby in her home. After Telemundo published a report on the mother’s ordeal, an immigration attorney successfully filed an application on her behalf for parole, a benefit that allows migrants to temporarily live in the U.S., typically for humanitarian reasons.
M.M.B.B. and her son were admitted to the U.S. on July 8, 2021, four days after being expelled. She is currently pursuing an application for asylum protections from the family’s home in Georgia.
The lawsuit against the federal government seeks damages for negligence, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress by Border Patrol agents.
“I hope to be able to help my mom and make progress,” M.M.B.B. told Telemundo back in 2021, speaking through tears. “I want to work. I want to study. I want to become an electrical engineer and that’s what I am going to set out to do. The journey isn’t easy. Us immigrants know that.”
About the Author
