chicago — A Chicago teen who demanded her father’s release after immigration officials arrested him last fall in a deportation case has died after battling a rare form of cancer.
Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, 16, died Friday from stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, the family said in a statement. Funeral arrangements are private.
The teenager was diagnosed in December 2024 with an aggressive form of soft tissue cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
An immigration judge in Chicago ruled three days before Ofelia’s death that her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was conditionally entitled to “cancellation of removal” because of the hardship his deportation would cause for his children who were born in the United States and are American citizens, according to a statement sent by an attorney representing Torres Maldonado.
The ruling provides Torres-Maldonado with a path to becoming a lawful permanent resident and eventually obtaining U.S. citizenship, the statement said.
Ophelia was present via Zoom at last week’s hearing.
“Ophelia was heroic and courageous in standing up to ICE detention and threatening to deport her father,” said Kalman Resnick, Torres-Maldonado’s attorney. “We mourn Ophelia’s passing and hope she serves as a model for all of us of how to be brave and fight for what is right until our last breath.”
Torres Maldonado, a painter and home renovator, was arrested Oct. 18 at a Home Depot store in suburban Chicago where the area was the center of a major attack. Immigration campaign Dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz,” it began in early September.
Ophelia was undergoing treatment when she appeared in October in a video posted on the family’s GoFundMe page.
She said in the video: “My father, like many other fathers, is a hardworking person. He wakes up early in the morning and goes to work without complaining, and thinks about his family.” “I find it unfair that hardworking immigrant families are targeted just because they were not born here.”
in a wheelchair, She attended her father’s hearing in October. The family’s attorneys told the judge at the time that she had been released from the hospital just one day before her father was arrested so she could see family and friends. They added that Ophelia was unable to continue treatment “due to stress and confusion.”
Torres Maldonado’s lawyers filed a petition for his release after his deportation case went through the system. A judge ordered a hearing after ruling in October that his detention was illegal and violated Torres-Maldonado’s rights to due process.
A judge later cited Torres-Maldonado’s lack of criminal history He was allowed to be released on bail of $2,000.
Torres Maldonado entered the United States in 2003. He and his partner, Sandibel Hidalgo, also have a younger son, the lawyers said.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged that he had been living illegally in the United States for years and had a history of driving violations, including driving without a valid license, without insurance and speeding.