ACLU sues after immigration agents detain 10-year-old girl after surgery

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after federal immigration authorities detained a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy following emergency surgery.

The ACLU planned to file the suit if the girl was not released by the Office of Refugee Resettlement by 3 p.m. on Tuesday, according to The Huffington Post, which reported that the girl remained in custody after the deadline.

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The lawsuit is seeking to reunite the girl with her family. The ACLU argues it is not legal to detain the girl, who it says “is completely dependent on her mother” and “needs this care, stability, routine and support.”

The lawsuit comes after the girl was detained by authorities earlier this month when the ambulance she was riding in passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint.

Border Patrol agents reportedly followed the ambulance to the hospital, where she underwent emergency gall bladder surgery and waited outside the girl’s room until she was released from the facility.

After she was released from the hospital, the girl was taken to a facility in San Antonio for migrant children who come to the U.S. alone.

Michael Tan, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, called it “unconscionable to target a little girl in a children’s hospital.”

“Hospitals are considered sensitive locations under Homeland Security’s own policy, and Border Patrol should not be arresting people there — especially children,” Tan said in a statement.

“The government’s actions are unlawful, cruel, and threaten to keep parents with sick children from seeking care. It is also unconstitutional to deprive a child of the love and care her parents have provided her entire life.”

Andre Segura, legal director of the ACLU of Texas, said people should be “outraged” by the situation.

“All of us should be outraged and alarmed that the federal government would chase a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy to a hospital, arrest her after surgery, and rip her from her loving home,” Segura said.

“This is not only unconstitutional, but heartless.”