San antonio: An 18-month-old girl, who was recently hospitalized with life-threatening respiratory failure, was returned to an immigration detention center in Texas and subsequently denied medication prescribed by her doctors, according to media reports.
According to Anadolu Agency, a lawsuit filed last week reveals that the toddler, identified as Amalia, became critically ill while detained with her parents at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. Her release came only after lawyers submitted an emergency habeas corpus petition to challenge her continued detention. Amalia was reportedly healthy before immigration authorities apprehended her family in El Paso in December and transferred them to Dilley, a remote facility that houses hundreds of immigrant children along with their parents.
The lawsuit details that Amalia's health rapidly declined, leading to her emergency transfer to a children's hospital in San Antonio on January 18. She was diagnosed with pneumonia, COVID-19, RSV, and severe respiratory distress. Columbia Law School professor and director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic, Elora Mukherjee, who filed the petition, stated, "She was at the brink of dying."
After receiving 10 days of intensive medical treatment, including oxygen support, Amalia was discharged on January 28 with specific medical instructions. Doctors recommended daily breathing treatments delivered by a nebulizer, medication such as albuterol, and nutritional supplements to aid her recovery. Despite these warnings about her medical vulnerability, immigration officials returned Amalia and her mother to the Dilley facility, where staff reportedly confiscated her prescribed medications and equipment.
Mukherjee highlighted the severity of the situation, saying, "After baby Amalia had been hospitalized for 10 days, ICE thought this baby should be returned to Dilley. It is so outrageous." The lawsuit also stated that Amalia's parents faced hours-long outdoor waits daily to request medicine, only to be denied access to her prescribed treatments.
Medical experts who provided affidavits for the case warned that returning a medically fragile child to detention without reliable access to medication placed her at extreme risk, including a "high risk for medical decompensation and death." While the Department of Homeland Security has not issued an immediate response, it has previously claimed that detainees receive basic necessities and appropriate care. CoreCivic, the operator of the Dilley facility under a federal contract, directed questions to DHS, emphasizing that detainee health and safety is its top priority.
Following the emergency court filing, Amalia and her family were released on Friday. Mukherjee commented on the lasting impact of the ordeal, stating, "I imagine they're going to carry the trauma of this experience for the rest of their lives."