HOUSTON — The American Civil Liberties Union says the U.S. government has released to her family a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who was detained by border agents after surgery because she is in the U.S. without legal permission.
The ACLU and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said in statements Friday that Rosa Maria Hernandez was released. An activist with the Workers Defense Action Fund also confirmed her release.
The ACLU sued the government on Rosa Maria’s behalf on Oct. 31, days after she and an adult cousin were followed by Border Patrol to a children’s hospital.
The Border Patrol said it had to detain Rosa Maria because she passed through an interior checkpoint in South Texas without her parents, who brought her to the U.S. from Mexico in 2007.