Immigrant rights advocates in Austin are sounding the alarm after a local mother and her three children, two of them U.S. citizens, were removed to Mexico on Wednesday following a check-in with immigration authorities.
According to Sulma Franco of the Austin-based advocacy group Grassroots Leadership, 37-year-old Denisse Parra Vargas was detained along with her 9, 5, and 4-year-old children after voluntarily reporting to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facility in Pflugerville. Franco, who has known the family for years, said the two youngest children were born and raised in Austin, as reported by the Austin American-Satatesman.
“They were good people,” Franco said. “They were people who were doing all that they could to provide for their families, responsibly, without trouble.”
Parra Vargas had been living in Austin for at least seven years, according to advocates. She and her children were confirmed to be in Reynosa, Mexico, as of Wednesday afternoon, said Daniel Hatoum, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project. Franco added that the family was believed to be staying in a shelter, attempting to reunite with the children’s father, Omar Gallardo Rodriguez, who was deported to Nuevo Laredo just days before.
The couple, originally from Mexico, had been questioned by immigration officials during a traffic stop near Dobie Middle School in North Austin’s Rundberg neighborhood the previous Thursday, said Grassroots Leadership spokesperson Maria Reza. Rodriguez was arrested and deported shortly thereafter, while Parra Vargas was given an ankle monitor.
Hatoum said he believes Parra Vargas visited the DHS facility in part because she thought it might help her partner’s case. “There is some level of gamesmanship to this,” he noted.
It remains unclear whether either Parra Vargas or Rodriguez had prior deportation orders or criminal records. According to Reza, Parra Vargas had a pending asylum case at the time of her removal.
When an individual applies for asylum, they are usually protected from deportation while the case is under review, whether it’s at USCIS (affirmative asylum) or in immigration court (defensive asylum). However, this protection can be undermined if:
- The applicant misses deadlines or hearings.
- They fail to check in as required by ICE or DHS.
- There is a final order of removal issued (for example, if the asylum case was denied and not appealed in time).
Even with a pending case, ICE may detain and deport individuals if:
- They already have a prior removal order from before the asylum application.
- Their case was denied and removal is now enforceable.
- DHS exercises prosecutorial discretion to deport based on recent enforcement priorities.
In Parra Vargas’ case, it is unclear whether she had a final removal order or was still actively in proceedings. However, legal advocates stress that some DHS actions, including deporting people who show up for check-ins, may go against the spirit of asylum protections if individuals are still actively seeking legal relief.
Under U.S. law, citizen children cannot be deported, but they can leave voluntarily with their parents. In practice, ICE often tells families: “You can take your kids with you or they’ll go into foster care or shelters.” This leads many families to take their U.S. citizen children with them across the border, which some advocates and legal experts describe as “de facto deportation.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not responded to a request for comment regarding the case. However, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement refuting claims of forced deportations of citizen children:
“The narrative that DHS is deporting American children is false and irresponsible reporting. Rather than separate their families, ICE asked the mothers if they wanted to be removed with their children or if they wanted ICE to place the children with someone safe the parent designates. In this case, when Parra was taken into ICE custody she chose to bring her children with her to Mexico. Denisse Parra-Vargas failed to appear before her immigration judge and was issued a final order of removal in 2019. Parents, who are here illegally, can take control of their departure. Through the CBP Home App— the Trump Administration is giving parents illegally in the country a chance to take full control of their departure and self-deport, with the potential ability to return the legal, right way and come back to live the American dream.”
This incident follows other recent reports of U.S. citizen minors being removed to Mexico alongside undocumented parents. In one case last month in Louisiana, a four-year-old child with Stage 4 cancer was removed along with their mother. In South Texas, ICE reportedly removed four U.S. citizen children between the ages of 6 and 15, some of whom were seriously ill, including one with a heart disorder and another with brain cancer.
“They basically tell the family: ‘Either take them with you or we’re going to separate them quickly from you,’” Hatoum said. “They then claim that’s not really a deportation because they were given the option of going. But it certainly is in a colloquial sense.”
Advocates continue to call for transparency and accountability in immigration enforcement practices, particularly when U.S. citizen children are involved.
*This article has been updated to include the statement provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
