Mother, daughter arrested by ICE at Central Florida hospital following crash
OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. —
Friday morning, 39-year-old Grace Calero and her 19-year-old daughter Giulianna Carriel arrived at Mariscal Sucre International Airport in the Ecuadoran capital of Quito, exhausted and facing an uncertain future. They came to Central Florida in recent years to escape death threats and violence in their home country, but they elected to self-deport following their arrests Aug. 20.
In footage that’s gone viral on multiple social media platforms online, cellphone video shot by a family member inside HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital in Osceola County shows the mother and daughter clutching one another while one of them has an IV still attached to her arm.
They are screaming because agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) are attempting to arrest them. The agents are getting help from Polk County deputies because that was the location of a two-vehicle crash that sent the women to that hospital.
Calero was driving to work with Carriel in the vehicle when it was struck by another vehicle and rolled over. The other driver was not seriously hurt.
Fast-forward to their treatment at the hospital, which concluded when deputies put them in patrol vehicles and booked the mother and daughter into the jail. That’s where they were informed they are in the U.S. illegally.
Speaking with journalists at the airport in Quito, Calero recalled, “It’s been painful, physically and emotionally, because it’s several days without sleeping. I have an infection from drinking water from the sink because that’s what was offered. The pain to be chained (handcuffed) as if we were the criminals, when everything was being done in accordance with the law.”
According to a family member who was present in the hospital room, someone they thought was working hospital security questioned the women about their immigration status before later identifying himself as someone with ICE.
A relative making a GoFundMe appeal for donations to help the women says Calero has a pending asylum case and a valid work permit, and Carriel has a visa that is valid until 2030.
But the Polk County Sheriff’s Office tells a different story, saying the following in a statement to WESH 2 News:
“The driver (Calero) is in the United States illegally from Ecuador after overstaying an expired visa by several years. Deputies then discovered that the adult daughter of the driver (Carriel)… was also in the country illegally, also on a multi-year expired visa.”
DHS provided a similar explanation, telling WESH 2 News, “Calero entered the country legally in 2023… (and) Carriel entered the country legally in 2025, but (both) overstayed their periods of legal admittance. ICE processed their request to voluntarily depart the United States.”
Friday afternoon outside HCA Poinciana hospital, critics of the Trump administration’s immigration policies chanted, “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”
Representatives of the Hope Community Center, UNITE Here, and other labor groups protested on the sidewalk, within view of the hospital’s front door.
Prior to the protest, HCA security tried to drive the demonstration across the street, further from hospital property, until an Osceola County deputy informed security that the demonstrators were allowed to be on the grass next to the street.
The protest group held signs and condemned both law enforcement’s and the hospital’s roles in the arrest of the women following a traumatic crash.
Calero’s sister Gia spoke to the crowd and, in tears, raised the specter of a country where undocumented migrants are afraid to seek needed emergency and other medical care, adding, “May God give us the strength to continue with this (protest) because there is fear. Everywhere there is fear.”
HCA spokesperson Victoria Heller provided a statement to WESH 2 News, saying, “Like all hospitals, we are required to comply with laws and regulations that govern interactions with verified members of law enforcement when they enter our hospital. At all times and no matter what the situation, we do not deviate from our goal of providing the medical care our patients need and deserve.”