Latest news with #DeysiVargas
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After outcry, 4-year-old girl can stay in U.S. for lifesaving care
Deysi Vargas's 4-year-old daughter was fussy on Wednesday as she carried her into their Bakersfield, California, home after a dental procedure. In a few hours, Vargas would have to prepare the girl's next feeding - washing her hands thoroughly, measuring formula and flushing her daughter's gastric tube. It was a routine Vargas had perfected through fear. Missing even one step could mean disaster, she said. But for the first time in months, she felt like she could finally breathe. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Vargas and her family, who hail from Mexico, could stay in the United States, the only country where her daughter can receive the complex and specialized treatment that keeps her alive. The girl has short bowel syndrome, a condition where the body cannot absorb enough nutrients from food. The relief that washed over Vargas had come after nearly two excruciating months, she said. In April, the government had abruptly revoked the family's humanitarian parole without giving them a reason. The move triggered swift international outrage and prompted 38 Democratic members of Congress to send a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem urging her to reverse the decision. Then on Tuesday, Vargas received a notice from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: The family had been granted another year of parole. 'I felt more than tranquility - peace,' Vargas, 28, told The Washington Post. 'These moments of not knowing whether we'd be deported or allowed to stay were beyond overwhelming. It was horrible knowing that my daughter's ability to stay alive depended on this humanitarian parole.' In a statement Friday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the family was approved to stay in the United States. The agency did not respond to questions about why their parole had been revoked after initially being granted until July. Vargas's attorney, Gina Amato Lough, said the family fit into two categories of people who have seen their status canceled amid the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration: people with parole and those who entered the country through the Biden administration's CBP One app. The Trump administration has also rolled back humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. The girl, whom the family's lawyers identify by the pseudonym Sofia, was born in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in fragile health. She had her first surgery at four days old for a malformation in her intestine. Four more surgeries followed, Vargas said, and left the girl with short bowel syndrome. Soon, the girl was transferred to a hospital nearly 800 miles away in Mexico City. Vargas and her husband uprooted their lives to move close to the facility, which their daughter did not leave for two years. After two more surgeries and a near-death experience, doctors told Vargas they were running out of options. The only thing left to try was an intestine transplant, which had never been done in that hospital before, Vargas recalled being told. 'They told me my child was most likely going to die,' she said. Vargas refused to give up hope. She started researching transplants and alternative treatments in Spain and the United States, and contacting hospitals. At the same time, she prepared an application for humanitarian parole, which allows people to temporarily live in the United States for urgent humanitarian reasons. In 2023, the family boarded a flight to Tijuana from Mexico City. They carried the girl - still connected to nutrition bags - to the border and legally entered the United States through an appointment secured through the CBP One app, Vargas said. They were granted humanitarian parole until July 2025. The girl arrived in California as an emaciated toddler and was transported to a children's hospital in San Diego. She soon began to thrive under specialized care, Vargas said, including hours tethered to an intravenous feeding system - a machine that pumps nutrients into her through a tube. Little by little, the child reached milestones - like sitting up and taking her first steps - that to Vargas had once seemed impossibly out of reach. She was transferred to Children's Hospital Los Angeles after a year. In September, the girl was discharged and allowed to live something close to a normal life: playing in the park, painting with her father and attending day care while Vargas works in a buffet-style restaurant. She loves dancing, especially to 'Mambo No. 5' by Lou Bega. 'She feels the rhythm and starts moving her body,' Vargas said, laughing. For a while, it felt like the family was moving forward. Then came the April 11 letter from DHS, giving them just seven days before their legal status would be revoked. 'Do not attempt to remain in the United States - the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately,' read the email, which was reviewed by The Post. The family received two more such notices. The last one, from May 13, warned Vargas that her work authorization had also been canceled. 'I can't explain the fear,' she said. 'Feeling like any time we were out on the streets someone was going to take us away and deport us.' Adding to her anxiety, Vargas said, was the fact that her daughter's medical team had said the equipment that keeps the girl alive can't leave the country - and patients on this treatment aren't allowed to travel. DHS denied in its statement that the family was 'actively being deported.' Though the family hadn't been placed in removal proceedings or received a final deportation order, Amato Lough said the revocation of their status effectively left them undocumented. The letter the family received from DHS warned: 'If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal.' On May 14, Vargas and her family filed another application for humanitarian parole. Weeks went by without an answer. Then, after the Los Angeles Times reported on the family's situation, USCIS contacted the family to begin scheduling biometrics appointments - a standard, early step in many immigration benefit applications. Days later, the family was told they would have status for a year. 'While we celebrate this victory, we cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought [the girl] to the brink,' Amato Lough and her co-counsel, Rebecca Brown, said in a statement. 'Her parole was terminated without warning, and for weeks there was no functional avenue to alert USCIS that a child's life was in danger. It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response - something that used to take a single phone call.' In Bakersfield, Vargas rocked her daughter gently this week and whispered reassurances. 'She's so groggy,' she said, as the girl whined. 'But she's going to be okay.' This time, she believed it. Related Content To save rhinos, conservationists are removing their horns Donald Trump and the art of the Oval Office confrontation Some advice from LGBTQ elders as WorldPride kicks off amid fears
Washington Post
07-06-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
After outcry, 4-year-old girl can stay in U.S. for lifesaving care
Deysi Vargas's 4-year-old daughter was fussy on Wednesday as she carried her into their Bakersfield, California, home after a dental procedure. In a few hours, Vargas would have to prepare the girl's next feeding — washing her hands thoroughly, measuring formula and flushing her daughter's gastric tube. It was a routine Vargas had perfected through fear. Missing even one step could mean disaster, she said. But for the first time in months, she felt like she could finally breathe. Vargas and her family, who hail from Mexico, could stay in the United States, the only country where her daughter can receive the complex and specialized treatment that keeps her alive. The girl has short bowel syndrome, a condition where the body cannot absorb enough nutrients from food. The relief that washed over Vargas had come after nearly two excruciating months, she said. In April, the government had abruptly revoked the family's humanitarian parole without giving them a reason. The move triggered swift international outrage and prompted 38 Democratic members of Congress to send a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem urging her to reverse the decision. Then on Tuesday, Vargas received a notice from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: The family had been granted another year of parole. 'I felt more than tranquility — peace,' Vargas, 28, told The Washington Post. 'These moments of not knowing whether we'd be deported or allowed to stay were beyond overwhelming. It was horrible knowing that my daughter's ability to stay alive depended on this humanitarian parole.' In a statement Friday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the family was approved to stay in the United States. The agency did not respond to questions about why their parole had been revoked after initially being granted until July. Vargas's attorney, Gina Amato Lough, said the family fit into two categories of people who have seen their status canceled amid the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration: people with parole and those who entered the country through the Biden administration's CBP One app. The Trump administration has also rolled back humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. The girl, whom the family's lawyers identify by the pseudonym Sofia, was born in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in fragile health. She had her first surgery at four days old for a malformation in her intestine. Four more surgeries followed, Vargas said, and left the girl with short bowel syndrome. Soon, the girl was transferred to a hospital nearly 800 miles away in Mexico City. Vargas and her husband uprooted their lives to move close to the facility, which their daughter did not leave for two years. After two more surgeries and a near-death experience, doctors told Vargas they were running out of options. The only thing left to try was an intestine transplant, which had never been done in that hospital before, Vargas recalled being told. 'They told me my child was most likely going to die,' she said. Vargas refused to give up hope. She started researching transplants and alternative treatments in Spain and the United States, and contacting hospitals. At the same time, she prepared an application for humanitarian parole, which allows people to temporarily live in the United States for urgent humanitarian reasons. In 2023, the family boarded a flight to Tijuana from Mexico City. They carried the girl — still connected to nutrition bags — to the border and legally entered the United States through an appointment secured through the CBP One app, Vargas said. They were granted humanitarian parole until July 2025. The girl arrived in California as an emaciated toddler and was transported to a children's hospital in San Diego. She soon began to thrive under specialized care, Vargas said, including hours tethered to an intravenous feeding system — a machine that pumps nutrients into her through a tube. Little by little, the child reached milestones — like sitting up and taking her first steps — that to Vargas had once seemed impossibly out of reach. She was transferred to Children's Hospital Los Angeles after a year. In September, the girl was discharged and allowed to live something close to a normal life: playing in the park, painting with her father and attending day care while Vargas works in a buffet-style restaurant. She loves dancing, especially to 'Mambo No. 5' by Lou Bega. 'She feels the rhythm and starts moving her body,' Vargas said, laughing. For a while, it felt like the family was moving forward. Then came the April 11 letter from DHS, giving them just seven days before their legal status would be revoked. 'Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately,' read the email, which was reviewed by The Post. The family received two more such notices. The last one, from May 13, warned Vargas that her work authorization had also been canceled. 'I can't explain the fear,' she said. 'Feeling like any time we were out on the streets someone was going to take us away and deport us.' Adding to her anxiety, Vargas said, was the fact that her daughter's medical team had said the equipment that keeps the girl alive can't leave the country — and patients on this treatment aren't allowed to travel. DHS denied in its statement that the family was 'actively being deported.' Though the family hadn't been placed in removal proceedings or received a final deportation order, Amato Lough said the revocation of their status effectively left them undocumented. The letter the family received from DHS warned: 'If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal.' On May 14, Vargas and her family filed another application for humanitarian parole. Weeks went by without an answer. Then, after the Los Angeles Times reported on the family's situation, USCIS contacted the family to begin scheduling biometrics appointments — a standard, early step in many immigration benefit applications. Days later, the family was told they would have status for a year. 'While we celebrate this victory, we cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought [the girl] to the brink,' Amato Lough and her co-counsel, Rebecca Brown, said in a statement. 'Her parole was terminated without warning, and for weeks there was no functional avenue to alert USCIS that a child's life was in danger. It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response — something that used to take a single phone call.' In Bakersfield, Vargas rocked her daughter gently this week and whispered reassurances. 'She's so groggy,' she said, as the girl whined. 'But she's going to be okay.' This time, she believed it.
Daily Mail
04-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Trump admin's show of mercy for adorable Mexican migrant girl receiving life-saving care in California
Donald Trump 's Department of Homeland Security granted an adorable Mexican migrant girl, 4, humanitarian parole so she could continue to receive life-saving care in California. The department has cracked down on undocumented migration and dismantled a Biden-era policy that allowed migrants to request humanitarian parole on a mobile app. Deysi Vargas and her daughter, who was identified only by her initials, received legal immigration status in 2023 so that the girl could receive care for short bowel syndrome. The family's attorneys at Public Counsel said in a statement that they received parole on June 2 and will expire in one year. 'While we celebrate this victory, we cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought Sofia to the brink,' the family's attorneys said in a statement, referring to the girl using a pseudonym. 'Her parole was terminated without warning, and for weeks there was no functional avenue to alert USCIS that a child's life was in danger. It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response—something that used to take a single phone call.' The statement added that there are many stories similar to the girl, 'but the danger they face is every bit as real' and that the immigration system 'must protect everyone facing life-threatening harm.' Vargas' daughter, who was identified by the initials, SGV, receives daily treatment to get her nutrition using a portable backpack. She receives her care through a process called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), which feeds her using an IV. Only a few countries including the US can administer the treatment and the equipment cannot travel outside of the country. The family flew into a panic in April when they received a letter from DHS notifying them that their parole had been revoked, according to Vargas' attorneys at Public Counsel. Brown said in a statement at the time that SGV was receiving specialized care at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. 'To suddenly yank away that welcome mat, take away her life-saving medical care, and force her back to a place where she could die within days is a cruel betrayal of our nation's word and an affront to our shared humanity,' Brown continued. Vargas shared her story at a news conference in May, telling reporters, 'If they deport us and take away my daughter's access to her specialized care, she will die.' 'Now, with the help my daughter receives in the United States, my daughter has the opportunity to leave the hospital, see the world, and live like a child her age,' she added. The family's attorneys said their humanitarian parole was set to expire at the end of July but Vargas had been working to get it extended. Public Counsel said in a statement to the Associated Press that while they were grateful the family received humanitarian parole, the case demonstrated a lack of communication with officials. 'We cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought Sofia to the brink,' the statement read, referring to the girl as 'Sofia' using a pseudonym. 'Her parole was terminated without warning ... It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response—something that used to take a single phone call.' SGV requires the treatment with her for 14 hours a day, but can leave the hospital with the backpack. The girl's physician, Dr. John Arsenault, who sees her every six weeks wrote a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times that said SGV's condition could be fatal 'within a matter of days' if she lost her treatment. 'As such, patients on home TPN are not allowed to leave the country because the infrastructure to provide TPN or provide immediate intervention if there is a problem with IV access depends on our program's utilization of U.S.-based healthcare resources and does not transfer across borders,' Arsenault added. While she was in Mexico, SGV experienced repeated blood infections and underwent six surgeries. The family can stay in the country on humanitarian parole until June 2. reached out to DHS for additional information but didn't immediately hear back.
CBS News
04-06-2025
- General
- CBS News
4-year-old battling rare health condition granted permission to stay in U.S. on humanitarian parole
A Mexican family in Los Angeles has been given permission to stay in the United States in order to receive lifesaving treatment for their 4-year-old daughter, the family's attorneys announced Tuesday. For the past month, the girl's mother, Deysi Vargas, and her attorneys have pleaded with the Trump administration to reinstate their humanitarian parole after immigration services revoked the family's emergency visa back on April 11. Last week, Gina Amato Lough, one of the family's attorneys, said in a press conference that the family received a subsequent notice a few weeks later and a third such notice in May informing them that they were "no longer in lawful status" and vulnerable to deportation. Sofia, a pseudonym used to protect the girl's identity, has been receiving lifesaving treatment at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, and the equipment used in her treatment is not available outside of the U.S., her attorneys say. Sofia's medical team told the family that if she does not continue to receive treatment, she could die in a matter of days, according to Vargas. On Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services granted a one-year humanitarian parole that took effect June 2, attorneys said in a news release. The decision to extend parole followed a "biometrics appointment" Friday with Sofia and Vargas at the USCIS field office in Bakersfield, attorneys said. Bakersfield is located about 100 miles north of L.A. "We are profoundly grateful that USCIS acted swiftly to grant Sofia and her mother one year of humanitarian parole," Amato Lough said in a statement. "By moving quickly, the agency has ensured that a four‑year‑old girl can continue receiving her life-saving medical treatment. We commend USCIS for its responsiveness and for recognizing the urgency of this situation. " The Los Angeles Times first reported that Sofia is receiving treatment for a rare condition called short bowel syndrome, which requires her to receive 14 hours' worth of intravenous nutrition per day. Vargas said that when Sofia was 7 months old, she was diagnosed with the condition in Mexico and was told by doctors she had to come to the U.S. to receive life-saving care. "Sofia's story is one of many, but life‑or‑death decisions like hers aren't always visible," Amato Lough said. "Many families who seek refuge in the United States are fleeing threats you can't see and, while their wounds may be invisible, the danger they face is every bit as real."
CBS News
04-06-2025
- General
- CBS News
4-year-old battling rare health condition allowed to stay in U.S.
A Mexican family in Los Angeles has been allowed to stay in the United States to receive lifesaving treatment for their 4-year-old daughter, Sofia. For the past month, the girl's mother Deysi Vargas and her attorneys pleaded with President Trump's administration to reinstate their humanitarian parole after immigration services revoked their emergency visa on April 11. Last week, Gina Amato Lough, Directing Attorney at Public Counsel, said they received a subsequent notice a few weeks later and a third one in May, saying they were "no longer in lawful status" and were vulnerable to deportation. Sofia's medical team told the family that if she does not continue to receive treatment, she could die in a matter of days, according to Vargas. The equipment used in Sofia's treatment is not available outside of the U.S. After their public pleas and letters to President Trump, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services granted a one-year humanitarian parole beginning on June 2. "We are profoundly grateful that USCIS acted swiftly to grant Sofia and her mother one year of humanitarian parole," Amato Lough said. "By moving quickly, the agency has ensured that a four‑year‑old girl can continue receiving her life-saving medical treatment. We commend USCIS for its responsiveness and for recognizing the urgency of this situation. " The Los Angeles Times first reported that Sofia is receiving treatment for a rare condition called short bowel syndrome, which requires her to receive 14 hours' worth of intravenous nutrition per day. Vargas said that when Sofia was 7 months old, she was diagnosed with the condition in Mexico and was told by doctors she had to come to the U.S. to receive life-saving care. "Sofia's story is one of many, but life‑or‑death decisions like hers aren't always visible," Amato Lough said. "Many families who seek refuge in the United States are fleeing threats you can't see and, while their wounds may be invisible, the danger they face is every bit as real."
