Magdalena Callejas had full custody of her 4- and 6-year-old children and a pending visa application when she was arrested at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas in March 2024. She says ICE officials told her the agency "did not do that" when she asked to be reunited with her children, so she agreed to leave the country voluntarily, hoping to recover them once she reached El Salvador. Her undocumented ex-partner — who had multiple DUIs and against whom she held a restraining order for abusing her and her son — took the children and filed for custody while she was detained. After a months-long trial, a judge ordered the children returned to her in El Salvador following a 30-day stay and renewed her five-year restraining order, but when the children's neutral caregiver quit, the judge ordered the father to care for them until a pro bono lawyer with Public Counsel could arrange volunteers to transport them.