Toddler Hospitalized with Respiratory Failure in ICE Custody, Medication Withheld
An 18-month-old girl detained with her parents at an immigration processing center in Texas became so gravely ill that she required hospitalization for ten days with life-threatening respiratory conditions, only to have her prescribed medication confiscated upon return to custody, according to a federal lawsuit. The case involving baby Amalia has amplified severe concerns about medical neglect and dangerous conditions inside the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a remote Texas facility currently experiencing a measles outbreak.
Family Detained After Legal Entry
Amalia's parents, Kheilin Valero Marcano and Stiven Arrieta Prieto, are Venezuelan nationals who fled the Maduro regime and entered the United States legally in 2024 under humanitarian parole. They were living in El Paso, Texas, complying with all immigration check-ins and awaiting a court date in 2027. Their lives were upended on December 11 when they were abruptly arrested during a routine ICE appointment.
Shortly after detention at the Dilley facility, Amalia's health began a rapid and alarming decline. According to the lawsuit, she suffered persistent high fevers, vomiting, diarrhea, and infections while her parents pleaded with detention staff for medical assistance. On January 1, her fever spiked to 104 degrees Fahrenheit, followed by severe breathing difficulties and a loss of ten percent of her body weight.
Hospitalization and Subsequent Denial of Care
Only after her blood oxygen saturation plummeted to dangerously low levels did Amalia receive urgent medical care. She was transferred to two Texas hospitals where doctors diagnosed her with a devastating combination of pneumonia, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and viral bronchitis. The toddler required supplemental oxygen via machine during her hospitalization from January 18 to January 28.
Upon discharge, doctors provided detailed care instructions, prescriptions for Albuterol and a nebulizer, and Pediasure nutritional supplement to support her recovery. Shockingly, ICE staff at the Dilley center confiscated all medication and the Pediasure upon her return. Her parents were forced to wait for hours in outdoor queues each day to request the life-saving medicine, only to be consistently turned away.
Inhumane Detention Conditions
The lawsuit paints a grim picture of conditions inside the Dilley facility. Amalia and her mother shared a single room with four other mothers and their children, with lights illuminated twenty-four hours a day, disrupting sleep. The family reported insects in their food and a lack of access to clean, drinkable water. Even after a judge ordered the family's release last week, ICE officials failed to return Amalia's nebulizer, remaining medication, birth certificate, and vaccination records.
"This is outrageous," stated Elora Mukherjee, director of Columbia Law School's Immigrants' Rights Clinic, which filed the petition. "ICE continued to detain Baby Amalia during a measles outbreak and in a setting where she was exposed to other infectious viruses. Hundreds of children and families remain detained and at risk at Dilley. This is unconscionable."
Broader Context of Expanding Detentions
This case emerges amid a significant expansion of ICE detentions since Donald Trump's return to the White House. Current figures indicate over 70,000 individuals are held in detention centers nationwide at any given time, a modern historical high. While the federal government does not publicly disclose data on children in custody, reports from advocacy groups and investigative journalists suggest a growing number are minors.
According to The Marshall Project, at least 3,800 people under 18, including twenty infants, were in immigration enforcement custody last year. The Dilley facility, operated by private prison firm CoreCivic and reopened by the Trump administration, has become a focal point for such detentions. The administration has also moved to strip legal protections from millions of immigrants previously living and working with permission, making them immediately vulnerable to arrest.
The lawsuit against ICE and the ongoing plight of families at Dilley underscore a systemic failure to provide basic humanitarian care and legal protections, particularly for the most vulnerable children within the immigration system.
