Rosa Maria Hernandez is a ten-year-old little girl who ended up in the news because U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained her on the way to the hospital for surgery. They stayed with her during her surgery and transferred her to a detention center to await deportation after her discharge. The story hits all the right notes on the heartstrings scale to make almost everyone mad. The New York Times reported that Hernandez was going for “emergency surgery,” conjuring images of a wailing ambulance ride interrupted by cruel border guards. Every press outlet basically reported the same thing (including PJM, because that was the only information available at the time). After contacting ten different offices asking for more information about why a child would be detained and put in a detention center without her parents, a source close to the investigation spoke on condition of anonymity.
“She wasn’t going for emergency surgery. She was using a medical transport for a scheduled visit. The press reported it wrong,” the tipster said. “Further, when border patrol encounters a child unaccompanied by a legal guardian at a checkpoint, then border patrol is legally the guardian from that moment on. These rules were set up under President Obama.”
The source continued, “The cartel is very good at using ambulances to smuggle people and drugs through border checkpoints. We catch them all the time. Recently, they made a counterfeit border patrol vehicle and almost got through, except someone noticed the bumper was wrong.” The vehicle was hiding 12 people who were being smuggled into the United States. Border Patrol has no authority to decide which illegals can stay or go after they’re caught. “The law is clear. If an undocumented minor is unaccompanied, and in this case she was with her cousin who was not her legal guardian, then we must take her into custody,” the source explained. Hernandez’s parents are also in the country illegally and reside in Laredo, Texas.
News outlets have made much about the fact that she is separated from her parents. “Her parents could have come to be with her at the hospital at any time. They could go to the detention facility right now to see her, but they didn’t come because they are in the country illegally and they don’t want to be detained,” said the source. “They intentionally sent her by herself so they wouldn’t be caught, creating a situation where their lawyer can make political hay out of separating them from their daughter. But they had the choice to be with her, and they chose to let her go through surgery alone.”
Many lawyers who work with illegal aliens are well versed in legal loopholes and tricks to get public sympathy for their clients. “They knew we couldn’t come and get them because we are not ICE. ICE could go and get her family, but we cannot,” said the tipster. “So the lawyers are basically playing a game with public outrage that they hope will work in their favor, but the law is the law. We must uphold it or we will face discipline. No Border Patrol agent has the authority to decide which people will be detained. We follow the law every time.”
People have been worried about her medical condition, but the insider said that Hernandez is doing fine. “Thank God she was detained here and not Mexico! We are trained for medical emergencies and all situations. She has access to the finest health care system in the world and is being well cared for. Anyone who says differently should see where they put you in Mexico if you cross the border illegally.”
“I’m a parent,” the source continued. “When you see a child in distress it’s a hard thing. And she needs her parents. They should turn themselves in and be with her.”
Hernandez’s case has been turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement where they will work to reunite her with her parents.
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