Family Detained by ICE While Seeking Medical Care for Their 7-Year-Old Daughter’s Nosebleed

A mother, father and their 7-year-old daughter were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after the family sought medical help for the child, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) and Noticias Noroeste.

The child, Diana Crespo, experienced a prolonged nosebleed on Jan. 15, reports said. The next morning, she and her parents — Darianny Liseth Gonzalez De Crespo and Yohendry De Jesus Crespo — went to urgent care at Portland Adventist Health in Oregon. Immigration officers detained the family in the facility’s parking lot, OPB and Noticias Noroeste reported.

Family friends told OPB that the parents and child are now being held at ICE’s South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. CNN has reported that the same facility is where Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old who drew national attention after being detained by ICE in Minnesota, is being held.

A GoFundMe created by a friend of the mother, Stephanie Melendez, alleges that agents “forced them out of the car” and that the child did not receive medical care at the urgent care visit. The fundraiser says the family is being held without access to money and needs support for legal fees and basic necessities while detained.

“Darianny and Yohendry are a couple full of dreams and goals, honest and hardworking people who came to this country to work and give their daughter Diana a good future,” Melendez wrote on the page.

A friend of the family identified as Ana told OPB and The Chronicle that the parents and child came to the United States from Venezuela a little over a year ago. Darianny’s sister told OPB that the family left Venezuela due to fears tied to the country’s government. “Most of us who left, who emigrated, did so because of that fear,” she said.

Ana told OPB and The Chronicle that the family initially moved to Utah, but relocated in October to live with her family amid increased immigration enforcement in the state. She said they entered the U.S. in California after an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Ana also told the outlets that the family has a pending asylum application, and that the parents received permits to work legally in the United States. She added that they were still in the process of securing a lawyer at the time of their detention.

Portland Adventist Health communications manager CJ Anderson told OPB in a statement that the facility was unaware the Crespo family would be detained.

“No law enforcement agency contacted us, and we did not coordinate with any agency,” Anderson said. “Adventist Health Portland is here for our community, open, available and ready to provide care when it’s needed most. Patient care remains our priority, regardless of circumstance.”

Ana told OPB that Diana remained sick after the family was detained, and said the child did not see a doctor at the Texas facility for several days. Ana said Diana has since improved.

The detention is among the first reported cases of an entire family being detained in Oregon, Portland Immigrants Rights Coalition coordinator Alyssa Walker Keller told OPB. “It’s horrific this happened, and [it’s] a new, unsettling dynamic to see a family unit detained like this in Oregon,” she said.

ICE and Portland Adventist Health did not immediately respond to media inquiries about the incident as of Saturday, Jan. 24, according to the report.