CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 A Chicago teen who spoke out for her father\u2019s release after he was detained last fall by immigration officials in a deportation case has died after battling a rare form of cancer.<\/p>\n
Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, 16, died Friday from stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, the family said in a statement. Funeral arrangements are private.<\/p>\n
The teenager had been diagnosed in December 2024 with the aggressive form of soft tissue cancer and had been undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment.<\/p>\n
An immigration judge in Chicago ruled three days before Ofelia\u2019s death that her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was conditionally entitled to receive \u201ccancellation of removal\u201d due to the hardships his deportation would cause his children who were born in the United States and are U.S. citizens, according to the statement sent by an attorney representing Torres Maldonado.<\/p>\n
The ruling provides Torres Maldonado with a path to becoming a lawful permanent resident and eventual U.S. citizenship, the statement said.<\/p>\n
Ofelia was present via Zoom at last week\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE\u2019s detention and threatened deportation of her father,\u201d said Kalman Resnick, Torres Maldonado\u2019s attorney. \u201cWe mourn Ofelia\u2019s passing, and we hope that she will serve as a model for us all for how to be courageous and to fight for what\u2019s right to our last breaths.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres Maldonado, a painter and home renovator, was detained Oct. 18 at a Home Depot store in suburban Chicago as the area was at the center of a major immigration crackdown<\/a> dubbed \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d which began in early September.<\/p>\n Ofelia was undergoing treatment when she appeared in October in a video posted on a GoFundMe page set up for the family.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad, like many other fathers, is a hard-working person who wakes up early in the morning and goes to work without complaining, thinking about his family,\u201d she said in the video. \u201cI find it so unfair that hardworking immigrant families are being targeted just because they were not born here.\u201d<\/p>\n