Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) always claims that they are working to protect American citizens from dangerous undocumented immigrants, but once again they have proven that their only goal is to deport as many undocumented immigrants as possible, because since they are from another country, they must be criminals.

RosaMaria Hernandez, a 10-year-old undocumented immigrant with cerebral palsy, was the latest victim of ICE's hateful regime. They found her when she was en route to a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas for an emergency gallbladder surgery. The hospital van that she was in was stopped by Border Patrol in a routine highway checkpoint, and the ICE agents then realized that Hernandez was undocumented. This exact scenario of the van being stopped by Border Patrol was the reason why her parents did not accompany her on the ride to the hospital and let her go with her cousin, Aurora Cantu, who is an American citizen.

The Border Patrol Agents then allowed the hospital van to pass through, but they followed the van there because, for some absurd reason, it was of the utmost importance for Hernandez to be detained. The agents kept an eye on her the entire time she was in the hospital, from when she was in surgery to when follow up medical procedures were being done on her. They treated her like a criminal that needed to be under constant surveillance, when she was really only a child receiving medical attention.

If the agents had any humanity at all, they would have allowed Hernandez to be released back to her mother, but they are not even allowing her to be with her cousin or her grandfather that has been a legal resident for 45 years. Even the hospital stated in her discharge orders Hernandez should be with a family member that knows about her medical condition, but the agents could not be bothered, because their only concern was having her be shipped off to a shelter as soon as possible. The shelter that she is in is normally for children that have crossed the border alone from Central America, which is why it is extra peculiar that she is being held there when she has lived in the United States since she was three months old.

How could a young girl with cerebral palsy that just had surgery be such a grave threat to the United States? The only possible explanation for why ICE would be so adamant about putting her through deportation proceedings without her parents is because ICE is motivated by xenophobia and racism. There is nothing wrong with deporting undocumented immigrants that have committed serious crimes and could actually endanger those around them, but Hernandez is not causing anyone any harm.

The United States is her country, and attempting to kick her out of the only place she has ever known without even allowing her parents to stand by her side is inhumane. ICE should be ashamed because it is already bad enough to do this to a child, but she is a child with a medical condition, and by separating her from her family, her health could be put at a serious risk.

The staff of the shelter that Hernandez was taken to promised her family a "smooth transition," but they did not have access to any of her medical history or hospital discharge papers. The only people that deserved to be punished in this situation are the Border Patrol agents that decided to ruin the lives of a little girl and her family when she was only trying to travel to a hospital for a surgery that she desperately needed.

Undocumented immigrants continue to be treated like weeds that need to be eradicated, and not many people speak up, because they believe that the immigrants are getting what they deserve. American citizens need to wake up and realize that they should not be so opposed to having people from other countries move to the United States, because unless they happen to be Native Americans, their families also came from other countries. If the story of RosaMaria Hernandez still does not convince you that ICE is only trying to protect white supremacy and not the general public, then you are just as despicable as they are.