Teen daughter who campaigned for Chicago man detained by ICE dies from uncommon most cancers | EUROtoday

A Chicago teenager who had campaigned for her father’s launch from immigration detention has died after a battle with a uncommon type of most cancers.

Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, 16, handed away on Friday from stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, her household confirmed in an announcement. The teenager had been recognized with the aggressive smooth tissue most cancers in December and had been present process intensive chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Her demise comes simply days after an immigration choose in Chicago dominated that her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was conditionally entitled to a “cancellation of removal”. This vital determination, made solely three days earlier than Ofelia’s passing, acknowledged the extreme hardship his deportation would inflict upon his US-born, citizen kids.

The ruling, in keeping with an announcement from his legal professional, now presents Mr Torres Maldonado a transparent pathway to changing into a lawful everlasting resident and, finally, a US citizen. Funeral preparations for Ofelia stay non-public, the household added.

Ofelia was current through Zoom eventually week’s listening to.

“Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father,” stated Kalman Resnick, Torres Maldonado’s legal professional. “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 residential renovator, was detained Oct. 18 at a Home Depot retailer in suburban Chicago as the world was on the heart of a serious immigration crackdown dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” which started in early September.

Ofelia was present process therapy when she appeared in October in a video posted on a GoFundMe web page arrange for the household.

“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 stated within the video. “I find it so unfair that hardworking immigrant families are being targeted just because they were not born here.”

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In a wheelchair, she attended a listening to for her father in October. The household’s attorneys instructed a choose at the moment that she was launched from the hospital only a day earlier than her father’s arrest in order that she might see household and pals. They added that Ofelia had been unable to proceed therapy “because of the stress and disruption.”

Torres Maldonado’s attorneys petitioned for his launch as his deportation case went by way of the system. A choose ordered a bond listening to after ruling in October that his detention was unlawful and violated Torres Maldonado’s due course of rights.

A choose later cited Torres Maldonado’s lack of legal historical past whereas permitting his launch on a $2,000 bond.

Lawyers stated Torres Maldonado entered the U.S. in 2003. He and his associate, Sandibell Hidalgo, even have a youthful son.

The Department of Homeland Security had alleged he had been dwelling illegally within the U.S. for years and has a historical past of driving offenses, together with driving and not using a legitimate license, with out insurance coverage and rushing.