Overview

• Denisse Parra Vargas and her husband were stopped by Texas state troopers for an expired license plate and subsequently handed over to ICE as undocumented immigrants.
• Parra Vargas was told she would be eligible for asylum and a work permit if she attended an ICE appointment, but upon arrival with her three children, she and the entire family were detained and deported.
• Two of Parra Vargas’s children, ages 5 and 4, are U.S. citizens, yet ICE deported them without offering the option for them to stay with a caretaker in the U.S.
• Advocacy group Grassroots Leadership reported difficulty locating the family in ICE custody until Parra Vargas called from Mexico, stating she had unknowingly signed documents leading to their deportation.
• This case highlights an ongoing pattern under the Trump administration of deporting U.S. citizen children alongside undocumented parents, drawing criticism over constitutional violations and lack of procedural safeguards.