Houston, Texas - A woman and her children, including two newborn twins who are US citizens, were on December 11 deported to Mexico by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Christina Salazar and her four children were taken into custody by ICE and deported from Houston's George Bush airport on December 11, leaving behind her husband Federico Arellano Jr., a US citizen.

The family's lawyers have said that the family was sent to Reynosa in Mexico despite having no contacts or way of getting money there. In addition, they were not allowed to get their coats and other belongings before being detained.

Among the deported children are a pair of newborn twins, about three months old, who have the right to US citizenship since they were born in Texas and have one parent who is a US citizen.

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Salazar and her children had been awaiting immigration hearings before the birth of the twins but missed their October 9 appointment because she had been recovering from an emergency cesarean section.

The family was then told that the immigration hearing would be rescheduled before receiving a call to go to a meeting point in Houston. Upon arrival, they were arrested and deported.

At the time, the family had no legal representation. Now, they are represented by attorneys Isaias Torres and Silvia Mintz.

"They were treated as if they were high-risk criminals," a family attorney told KHOU in a December 16 article. "The issue of Cristina missing her court hearing was a technical violation that could have been resolved."

"This case shouldn't have gone to this extreme. There were options, legal options, that were available, and he was not given those opportunities," Torres told reporters.

"They thought that they were complying and doing as they were told. And it turns out that they were not."