Toddler returned to ICE detention after intensive care

An 18-month-old girl who was hospitalized with life-threatening respiratory failure was returned to an immigration detention center in Texas and denied medication prescribed by doctors, media reports said on Saturday.

The lawsuit filed last week states that the toddler, identified as Amalia, became critically ill while held with her parents at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas and was released only after lawyers filed an emergency habeas corpus petition challenging her continued detention, according to NBC News.

Amalia had been healthy before immigration authorities arrested her family in El Paso in December and transferred them to Dilley, a remote facility where hundreds of immigrant children are detained with their parents.

According to the filing, Amalia's condition deteriorated rapidly, and on Jan. 18, she was rushed to a children's hospital in San Antonio with pneumonia, COVID-19, RSV and severe respiratory distress.

"She was at the brink of dying," said Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor and director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic, who filed the petition.

After 10 days of intensive treatment, including oxygen support, Amalia was discharged on Jan. 28 with clear medical instructions, the lawsuit said.

Doctors prescribed daily breathing treatments delivered by nebulizer, medication including albuterol and nutritional supplements to help her regain weight and strength.

Despite warnings that the toddler remained medically vulnerable, immigration officials returned Amalia and her mother to the Dilley facility, where detention staff confiscated her prescribed medications and equipment, according to the lawsuit.

"After baby Amalia had been hospitalized for 10 days, ICE thought this baby should be returned to Dilley," Mukherjee said. "It is so outrageous."

The filing states that Amalia's parents were required to wait for hours each day in outdoor lines to request medicine, only to be denied access to the prescribed treatments.

Medical experts submitted affidavits warning that returning a medically fragile child to detention without consistent access to medication placed her at extreme risk, including a "high risk for medical decompensation and death."

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond, but has previously said detainees are provided basic necessities and appropriate care.

CoreCivic, which operates the Dilley facility under a federal contract, referred questions to DHS and said the health and safety of detainees is its top priority.

Following the emergency court filing, Amalia and her family were released on Friday.

"I imagine they're going to carry the trauma of this experience for the rest of their lives," Mukherjee said.