An 18-month-old girl was hospitalized with life-threatening respiratory failure and, according to the family’s lawsuit, was returned to ICE custody and denied prescribed medication — a claim that raises urgent questions about how medical needs are handled in immigration detention. You’ll learn what happened, why medical experts warn this return could risk reinfection or decompensation, and which legal and policy issues the case now raises.
The story follows the toddler’s collapse, hospital care, and the family’s account of being sent back to a Texas facility with limited access to medication and basic necessities, as reported by multiple news outlets. Follow the timeline of events, the medical concerns clinicians flagged, and the legal arguments shaping the family’s challenge to detention practices.
Timeline of Toddler’s Illness and ICE Detention
Amalia’s illness progressed rapidly after her family entered federal custody, leading to hospitalization and a contested return to a Texas detention center. Medical records, lawyers’ filings, and detention reports form the basis for the timeline below.
Initial Detention and Health Decline
Amalia, an 18-month-old born in Mexico, was taken into federal custody after her family reported for an immigration check-in in December. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred them from El Paso to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in south Texas, more than 500 miles away from their community.
Within weeks of arrival, Amalia developed a persistent high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and increasing breathing difficulty. Her parents say they brought her to the facility clinic multiple times in early January but received only basic fever medication. By mid-January her oxygen levels fell dangerously low and she was struggling to breathe.
Hospitalization and Medical Diagnosis
On January 18, ICE transported Amalia to a children’s hospital in San Antonio after her blood oxygen dropped into the 50s. Doctors treated her for severe respiratory distress, pneumonia, COVID-19 and RSV; she spent ten days hospitalized from January 18 to 28 and required oxygen support during much of that stay.
Hospital records and affidavits cited by lawyers show clinicians prescribed nebulized breathing treatments, albuterol and nutritional supplements to support recovery. Medical experts who later reviewed the file warned the toddler remained medically vulnerable after discharge and needed reliable access to prescribed treatments.
Return to Dilley Immigration Processing Center
Despite the hospital’s instructions, ICE returned Amalia and her mother to the Dilley facility on January 28. Lawyers allege detention medical staff confiscated her nebulizer, albuterol and supplements and instead required the family to wait in an outdoor “pill line” for daily medication distribution.
The family reports being denied the prescribed breathing treatments and being given only PediaSure at times, while long waits and logistical barriers impeded consistent access to care. ICE and the company operating Dilley provided statements disputing the claim that medication was withheld, saying the child received care in the facility medical unit.
Family’s Release Following Lawsuit
After lawyers filed an emergency habeas corpus petition and publicized the case, federal court action prompted ICE to release the family late on a Friday evening, nine days after Amalia’s return to Dilley. The petition argued continued detention placed the medically fragile toddler at high risk of decompensation.
Attorneys said ICE failed to provide some hospital prescriptions and did not return Amalia’s birth certificate during the detention period. The family’s release followed affidavits from pediatric experts and mounting public scrutiny of conditions at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.
Medical and Legal Issues Surrounding the Case
The child suffered severe respiratory illness and faced alleged barriers to follow-up care after hospital discharge. Legal filings claim medical recommendations were ignored and prescribed treatments were not returned.
Confiscation and Denial of Prescribed Treatments
Attorneys say staff at the Dilley facility confiscated the toddler’s prescribed nebulizer, respiratory medication, and nutritional supplements when the family returned from the hospital. Nurses and doctors at the San Antonio children’s hospital had prescribed supplemental oxygen support, a nebulized bronchodilator, and high-calorie nutritional therapy after diagnoses including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), viral bronchitis, and pneumonia.
The lawsuit alleges facility staff instead offered PediaSure intermittently and refused to supply the inhaled medication or the nebulizer. Parents report being turned away when they tried to obtain the prescribed treatments through the detention medical line. Denied medication claims now form a central legal contention in the family’s petition for release.
Conditions in Family Detention Centers
Dilley and similar family detention centers house multiple families in close quarters, which raises contagion risks for a child recently treated for respiratory failure and severe respiratory distress. Reports noted confirmed measles cases at the facility and instances of crowded clinic queues.
CoreCivic, the contractor named in coverage, says it provides a continuum of health services but family attorneys counter that on-site care does not meet pediatric post-discharge needs. The environment can make use of supplemental oxygen or nebulizer treatments difficult to administer reliably. Detained families also face administrative hurdles to retrieve personal documents and medical records, complicating continuity of care.
Public and Official Responses
Medical advocates, pediatric organizations, and civil-rights lawyers pushed for the family’s release after news coverage and a lawsuit drew attention. NBC News and other outlets reported on the child’s hospitalization and the subsequent return to custody, prompting public criticism of ICE policies.
CoreCivic issued statements emphasizing audits and care protocols; ICE has not publicly detailed why staff confiscated prescribed equipment. Local clinicians who treated the toddler warned of reinfection risk and the need for respiratory monitoring, which became a focal point for legal arguments. Lawmakers and advocacy groups cited the case in calls to end or reform family detention practices.
Broader Implications for Family Detention
The case highlights gaps between acute pediatric hospital care and detention medical systems, especially for serious conditions like respiratory failure requiring ongoing respiratory support. If substantiated, the alleged denial of prescribed treatments could affect other detained families who depend on continuity of care for illnesses such as RSV and viral bronchitis.
Legal teams argue the facts could prompt injunctive relief or policy changes around return-to-detention procedures, medication custody, and documentation access. The episode also feeds into wider debates about the federal family detention program and its capacity to safely manage post-hospital pediatric cases.
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