every move according to the complaint a customs and border protection spokesperson said rosa maria was escorted by border patrol agents to the hospital to undergo surgery and the agents remained with her until she was transferred to the health and human services office of refugees and resettlement hospitals and other medical treatment facilities are considered sensitive locations where enforcement actions should generally be avoided and require either prior approval from an appropriate supervisory official or exigent circumstances necessitating immediate action border patrol agents refused to release rosa maria to her mother who is also undocumented or to family members rosa maria was then referred to the office of refugee resettlement orr which placed her in a childrens shelter the familys attorney said but rather than permit rosa maria to return to her family once she was discharged after surgery as her doctors had recommended the agents arrested rosa maria directly from her hospital bed without a warrant for the purpose of initiating removal proceedings to deport her from the united states the complaint states undocumented children are held in custody by orr which is run by the department of health and human services hhs but the lawsuit filed by the aclu claims that the government cannot render rosa maria an unaccompanied child merely by virtue of her arrest by cbp and orr cannot keep her in its custody knowing that she has been forcibly removed from her existing custodial relationship rosa maria hernandez 10 who has cerebral palsy was detained by border patrol agents after undergoing surgery on oct 24 2017 courtesy de la cruz family following her detention her supporters took to twitter to denounce rosa marias treatment using the hashtag freerosa disability rights legal advocacy and reproductive rights groups have also spoken out about her case a disabled elementary school student who has lived in texas since she was 3 months old is not a threat to our country and should not be in federal custody the autistic self advocacy network said in a statement saturday we also recognize that what has happened to rosa maria is not an isolated incident but rather just one of countless instances of injustice perpetuated by the trump administrations heartless immigration policy and deportation machine thomas a saenz president and general counsel of the mexican american legal defense and educational fund issued a statement on monday targeting the patient in an ambulance at a checkpoint detailing agents to follow a child to a hospital surgery as though she were a violent criminal taking a disabled minor from emergency surgery to a detention center this case perhaps more than any other exposes the lie in donald trumps assertion that the administration would target criminals for immigration enforcement action saenz wrote rosa maria hernandez should be immediately released to her family and patients in ambulances particularly children should henceforth be completely off limits in immigration enforcement naral prochoice america a reproductive rights advocacy group said the treatment she had received was anything but