Toddler, Hospitalized with Life-Threatening Respiratory Failure, Was Returned to ICE Detention, Denied Prescribed Meds: Family

After an 18-month-old girl detained by immigration authorities in Texas was rushed to the hospital with respiratory failure, pneumonia and multiple infections, federal agents allegedly returned her to the detention center — where she was given nutritional supplements instead of the medication doctors had prescribed.

The toddler, Amalia, had been healthy before she and her parents were detained in El Paso in December and later transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Friday, Feb. 6.

Shortly after arriving at Dilley — the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was previously held with his father, Adrian Conejo Arias — Amalia’s condition rapidly deteriorated, the lawsuit states. On Jan. 1, she developed a fever that spiked to 104 degrees and would not subside.

According to the filing, Amalia struggled to breathe, vomited frequently and suffered from persistent diarrhea. Her parents repeatedly brought her to the facility’s medical clinic, but they were allegedly given only basic fever-reducing medication.

On Jan. 18, as Amalia’s oxygen levels dropped to life-threatening lows, she was rushed to a children’s hospital in San Antonio. There, doctors diagnosed her with pneumonia, COVID-19, viral bronchitis, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and severe respiratory distress, the lawsuit says. She was placed on supplemental oxygen as her lungs worked to recover.

For 10 days, Amalia’s mother remained at her bedside, fearing her child might not survive, while officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) supervised them continuously, NBC News reported, citing the lawsuit and the family’s attorney, Elora Mukherjee. Mukherjee told NBC News that Amalia “was at the brink of dying.”

Despite medical warnings that the toddler remained highly vulnerable and at serious risk of reinfection, immigration officers did not allow Amalia and her mother to return to El Paso after she was discharged. Instead, they were taken back to the Dilley facility, according to the lawsuit.

Doctors had prescribed a nebulizer, respiratory medication and nutritional supplements to help Amalia regain the roughly 10% of her body weight she had lost during the medical crisis. However, those items were confiscated upon their return to the detention center, the lawsuit alleges.

Once back at Dilley, Amalia’s parents were again required to stand in long lines to request care, only to be denied the breathing treatments her doctors had ordered. At times, they were reportedly given only PediaSure; at other times, they were turned away without assistance, according to NBC News.

Amalia and her parents remained detained under these conditions for nine more days — even as two measles cases were confirmed at the facility — before the family was released on the evening of Feb. 6, after the lawsuit was filed.

ICE officers also allegedly failed to return Amalia’s birth certificate and vaccination card, despite repeated requests from her parents, Mukherjee said, adding that efforts are ongoing to recover the documents.

“ICE should never have detained Baby Amalia,” Mukherjee said in a statement on Feb. 8. “She and her parents did everything right — they entered the United States lawfully, complied with all immigration check-ins, went to church every week and contributed to their community. ICE abruptly arrested and detained the family in December. In January, Baby Amalia nearly died at Dilley.”

She added that hundreds of children and families remain detained at the facility and face ongoing risks. “The American Academy of Pediatrics and every major medical association has condemned family detention because of its harmful physical and psychological effects on children, which persist even after release,” she said.