Latest news with #SofiaVargas
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Trump administration denies critically ill 4-year-old is being deported and says humanitarian request under consideration
The Department of Homeland Security has denied that a critically ill 4-year-old girl is being actively deported to Mexico after the family launched a campaign about their case. Lawyers acting on behalf of Deysi Vargas and her daughter Sofia said that the family's humanitarian parole, granted in July 2023, was prematurely revoked by the Trump administration on April 11. 'They received a subsequent notice weeks later, and a third notice in May verifying that they are no longer in lawful status and are now vulnerable to deportation,' Gina Amato, directing attorney of the Immigrants Rights Project at Public Counsel, said at a press conference Wednesday. 'The notices also ordered the family to leave the United States immediately.' The family and her doctor said Sofia 'could die within days' if treatment for a rare condition is paused. But the department said that the family's application for humanitarian parole was 'still being considered' in a statement to The Independent. 'Any reporting that Vargas and her family are actively being deported are FALSE,' the official said. 'This family applied with USCIS for humanitarian parole on May 14, 2025, and the application is still being considered.' Amato said that lawyers wrote to immigration officials soon after they received the case, but heard nothing from the Trump administration. Lawyers filed a new application for humanitarian parole in May and still had not heard back, Amato said. 'We did our best to give them the benefit of the doubt and let them know that we think they made an error, that we have a 4-year-old child whose life is in danger and we asked them to reconsider their decision to terminate humanitarian parole,' Amato said. 'We have not heard anything back. We subsequently filed new applications for humanitarian parole, and similarly, have not received a response.' The family was granted temporary humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. from her home country of Mexico in 2023 after Sofia urgently needed treatment for short bowel syndrome, a rare condition that stops her from absorbing nutrients in food. The treatment she required was not available in Mexico and she was quickly deteriorating, her lawyers said. Sofia's treatment, which requires being hooked to an intravenous feeding system for 14 hours at night, can only be administered and overseen by a specialist team at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. 'This is a textbook example of medical need,' the family's attorney Rebecca Brown said Tuesday. 'This child will die and there's no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.' The family is currently living in Bakersfield, California, just over 100 miles north of Los Angeles and came to the U.S. legally in 2023 after signing up to the Biden administration's CBP One app. They received an appointment with border agents in Tijuana to receive two-year protection from deportation and were swiftly taken to a hospital in San Diego for urgent treatment. A year later, Sofia was referred to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, which has one of the highest-ranked programs for gastroenterology in the U.S. Under their care, by September 2024, Sofia was discharged and could receive treatment in the comfort of her home. Meanwhile, her parents were working hard to hold down odd jobs in Bakersfield. Sofia's care is still gruelling. In addition to the 14 hours a night hooked up to the IV, Vargas has to administer medication that goes into her daughter's stomach through a gastric tube four times a day. At preschool, a school nurse has to administer nutrition daily.
CBS News
28-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
4-year-old girl fighting for life at Children's Hospital Los Angeles facing deportation order
The family of a four-year-girl currently fighting for her life at Children's Hospital Los Angeles is now facing a deportation order as they hope to stay in the country and continue receiving treatment. Sofia has a rare condition called short bowel syndrome, which requires 14 hours worth of intravenous nutrition per day. She was diagnosed as a baby in her home country of Mexico, where doctors told her she had to come to the United States for life-saving care. The family received an emergency visa in 2023, allowing them to travel to Los Angeles where she's been getting treatment since. That status is now in limbo, however, after they received a letter saying that their legal status had changed. Attorneys representing Sofia Vargas and her family say that if they do leave the hospital, she'll only have days to live. "The doctors have said unequivocally that if this child's treatment is interrupted, that she will die within a matter of days," said Gina Amato, one of a group of attorneys working for the family without pay. "So yes. They must remain in the United States." As they face the uncertain future, they're hoping to figure out why their status was suddenly revoked. "They were not given any reason as to why. There's no allegations that they have violated the rules or anything like that," Amato said. "They were supposed to have parole through the end of July." Vargas' mother, Deysi, is working with attorneys to do anything they can to remain in the country. She's trying to remain strong for her daughter, but knows that the stakes couldn't be higher. "If we go back to Mexico, Sofia will be back in the hospital getting the treatment that will not be good for her," Vargas said in Spanish. "Her life will be at risk." Attorneys are holding out hope that the letter sent to Vargas was a mistake, similar to the one that one of the others representing Vargas wrongfully received back in April. "These are being sent out indiscriminately across the country, but to see it sent to a family whose four-year-old child depends on this life-saving treatment is really shocking," Amato said. Children's Hospital officials say that they cannot comment on the matter. A press conference on the next steps for the family is expected to be held on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.
