Humanitarian parole denied for deported parents of U.S. citizen girl with rare brain tumor

EXCLUSIVEImmigrationImmigrationHumanitarian parole denied for deported parents of U.S. citizen girl with rare brain tumorIn Mexico, the girl’s condition has worsened and she’s not getting the specialized care she needs, her family said in an exclusive interview with NBC News.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00A 12-year-old girl who is a U.S. citizen and is recovering from a brain tumor went with her undocumented parents to Mexico when they were deported last February. Her face has been blurred for her safety.Courtesy Texas Civil Rights ProjectShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 18, 2026, 6:31 AM EDTBy Nicole AcevedoThe deported mother of a U.S. citizen child who was recovering from a rare brain tumor recently found out she was denied a humanitarian request to return to the United States to continue her daughter’s specialized medical treatment.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.It was not the answer she was hoping for after a more than 10-month wait.“It was something very frustrating ... and very difficult,” the mother said from Mexico in Spanish. “It felt like a bucket of boiling water — or maybe cold water, I don’t even know — was thrown at me.”The child was 10 years old when immigration authorities deported both of her parents, who were undocumented, to Mexico more than a year ago. The girl and four of her siblings, three of whom are also U.S. citizens, also left with their parents.NBC News is withholding the name of the mother and family members because they now live in an area of Mexico where U.S. citizens have been kidnapped.Their removal interrupted months of lifesaving treatment the girl had been receiving in the U.S. after undergoing emergency surgery in 2024 to remove the brain tumor, which her doctors are still studying because it is so unusual.Now 12, her health has significantly deteriorated since she started living in Mexico without access to the care she needs, her mother said...