A Chicago teenager who had campaigned for her father’s release from immigration detention has died after a battle with a rare form of cancer.
Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, 16, passed away on Friday from stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, her family confirmed in a statement. The teenager had been diagnosed with the aggressive soft tissue cancer in December and had been undergoing intensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
Her death comes just days after an immigration judge in Chicago ruled that her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was conditionally entitled to a “cancellation of removal”. This significant decision, made only three days before Ofelia’s passing, acknowledged the severe hardship his deportation would inflict upon his US-born, citizen children.
The ruling, according to a statement from his attorney, now offers Mr Torres Maldonado a clear pathway to becoming a lawful permanent resident and, eventually, a US citizen. Funeral arrangements for Ofelia remain private, the family added.
Ofelia was present via Zoom at last week’s hearing.
“Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father,” said Kalman Resnick, Torres Maldonado’s attorney. “We mourn Ofelia’s passing, and we hope that she will serve as a model for us all for how to be courageous and to fight for what’s right to our last breaths.”
Torres Maldonado, a painter and home renovator, was detained Oct. 18 at a Home Depot store in suburban Chicago as the area was at the center of a major immigration crackdown dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” which began in early September.
Ofelia was undergoing treatment when she appeared in October in a video posted on a GoFundMe page set up for the family.
“My dad, like many other fathers, is a hard-working person who wakes up early in the morning and goes to work without complaining, thinking about his family,” she said in the video. “I find it so unfair that hardworking immigrant families are being targeted just because they were not born here.”
In a wheelchair, she attended a hearing for her father in October. The family’s attorneys told a judge at that time that she was released from the hospital just a day before her father’s arrest so that she could see family and friends. They added that Ofelia had been unable to continue treatment “because of the stress and disruption.”
Torres Maldonado’s attorneys petitioned for his release as his deportation case went through the system. A judge ordered a bond hearing after ruling in October that his detention was illegal and violated Torres Maldonado’s due process rights.
A judge later cited Torres Maldonado’s lack of criminal history while allowing his release on a $2,000 bond.
Lawyers said Torres Maldonado entered the U.S. in 2003. He and his partner, Sandibell Hidalgo, also have a younger son.
The Department of Homeland Security had alleged he had been living illegally in the U.S. for years and has a history of driving offenses, including driving without a valid license, without insurance and speeding.
