The family of a 4-year-old Mexican girl being treated for a life-threatening illness pleaded for assistance Wednesday in the face of threats that they could be deported following the revocation of the temporary legal status they received to accommodate the girl’s treatment.
“I’m grateful immigration officials granted us permission to come to the U.S. in the first place, but her condition is not temporary,” the girl’s mother, Deysi Vargas, said in video remarks released by attorneys at Public Counsel.
Vargas’ daughter, who is being identified by the pseudonym “Sofia” to protect her identity, suffers from a condition known as short bowel syndrome, requiring her to receive nutrition intravenously because she is unable to ingest it on her own. Attorneys for the family say any interruption in her medical care, even for a brief period of time, will be fatal.
“The doctors at (Children’s Hospital Los Angeles) have said that if the child’s treatment is interrupted, she will die within days,” attorney Gina Amato Lough said. “It’s not speculative. Their language is not that she could die within days. It’s that she will die within days.”
The girl’s family temporary permission to enter the United States in 2023 — during the Biden Administration — on humanitarian grounds so Sofia could receive critical medical care.
But according to attorneys at Public Counsel, the Trump Administration in April revoked the family’s humanitarian admission to the country and ordered them to self-deport. Following through on policies Donald Trump expressed during his campaign, his administration has been engaged in a nationwide crackdown on immigrants living in the country illegally, demanding they register online and leave the country voluntarily — potentially allowing them to return through legal channels — or face deportation with no hope of returning.
Attorneys for the girl’s family are hoping a court will intervene in the case and allow them to remain in the country to continue Sofia’s care.
“When we lived in Mexico, my daughter, she did not get any better. Now with the help that she has received in the United States, my daughter has an opportunity to get out of the hospital, know the world and live like a normal girl of four years,” Vargas said through an interpreter at a Koreatown news conference Wednesday.
According to attorneys, Sofia was born one month premature and underwent multiple surgeries as an infant, but she was left with short bowels and plagued by repeated infections. The family ultimately applied for humanitarian admission to the United States, and Sofia was initially treated in San Diego before being moved to CHLA.
With Sofia’s condition vastly improved, the family settled in Bakersfield, with Vargas working at a restaurant, but her work authorization in the United States has also now been revoked.
The family told the Los Angeles Times the girl spends 14 hours a night hooked up to an intravenous feeding system, which she also carries with her in a backpack. She also requires additional IV feedings throughout the day, and receives treatment at CHLA every six weeks.
“Deporting this family under these conditions is not only unlawful, it constitutes a moral failure that violates the basic tenants of humanity and decency,” Amato Lough said.