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A Chicago family is mourning the loss of their teenage daughter, who succumbed to stage 4 cancer while her father faced legal troubles with immigration authorities. According to a family spokesperson, the tragic news was shared with ABC7.
This development follows an earlier report, highlighted in the video above.
Ruben Torres Maldonado was apprehended by immigration officials on October 18 outside a Home Depot in Niles, just as his 16-year-old daughter, Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, had returned home from receiving cancer treatment.
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After his release from DHS custody in October, Torres returned to his home on Chicago’s Northwest Side, where he shared his experiences with ABC7.
Despite her ongoing battle with cancer, Ofelia found strength in her father’s presence, cherishing the time they spent together as she continued her treatment over the months. She expressed to ABC7 that having her father with her made her journey a bit more bearable.
“We spend time together just being lazy honestly just watching movies, eating together, just simple things,” she said in October. “I am so happy to have him back. Those two weeks without him were really hard.”
READ MORE | Father of cancer patient says he endured ‘inhumane conditions’ at Broadview ICE facility: EXCLUSIVE
In a statement Saturday, a family spokesperson said, “Three days before her death, an immigration judge in Chicago ruled that Ofelia’s father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was conditionally entitled to receive “cancellation of removal” due to the hardships his deportation would cause his U.S. citizen children, providing him with a pathway to lawful permanent residence and eventually U.S. citizenship. Ofelia was present via Zoom at her father’s hearing to witness her family’s victory.”
“Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father,” Kalman Resnick, the attorney representing Torres, said in a statement. “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.”
This is a developing story.
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