Border Patrol releases mother detained while taking son to surgery

An advocacy group says the Border Patrol has released a Mexican woman in the U.S. illegally who was detained for roughly 18 hours after accompanying her 4-year-old son to a San Antonio hospital.

The Workers Defense Action Fund says Silvia Macuixtle’s son broke his arm and needed to be taken on Sunday from Laredo to San Antonio for surgery. That required crossing an interior checkpoint.

The Border Patrol confirmed that its agents followed Macuixtle to the hospital – where her son had surgery – then detained her.

She was released Monday and returned to Laredo, on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Border Patrol said she has been given a summons to appear before an immigration judge.

Last year, the agency detained a 10-year-old girl who crossed a checkpoint for gallbladder surgery.