A Chicago teenager whose father was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year as she was sick with a rare form of cancer has died.
Ofelia Torres died on Friday at the age of 16 from Stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer that affects the soft tissue. She was diagnosed with cancer in December 2024.
Her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was arrested on Oct. 18, 2025, while she was home from the hospital spending time with her family. Ofelia posted a video to Instagram following his arrest calling for his release and raising awareness about other families in similar positions.
Torres Maldonado was released on $2,000 bond about two weeks later, after a judge took his daughter’s treatment into consideration during a hearing, NBC Chicago previously reported.
In the video, the teenager said her father was a hardworking immigrant who watched her brother while she stayed at the hospital for treatment.
“My dad, like many others, is a hardworking person who wakes up early in the morning and goes to work without complaining, thinking about his family,” Ofelia says in the video. “I find it so unfair that hardworking immigrant families are being targeted just because they were not born here.”
The video featured pictures of Torres Maldonado and his family, as well as of Ofelia at the hospital.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a previous statement regarding the arrest of Ruben Torres Maldonado, the Department of Homeland Security wrote: “He’s been charged multiple times with driving without insurance, driving without a valid license, and speeding. During his arrest he did not comply with instructions from the officers and attempted to flee in his vehicle and backed into a government vehicle.”
Shortly before Ofelia’s death, a Chicago judge ruled that her father was entitled to a cancellation of removal because his deportation would impact his U.S. citizen children negatively, according to a representative for the family. This ruling is expected to provide a pathway for Torres Maldonado to obtain permanent residence in the U.S. and citizenship, per the spokesperson.
Ofelia, who was a junior at Chicago’s Lake View High School, was present for the hearing via Zoom three days before her death, according to the spokesperson.
“Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father,” said Kalman Resnick, Torres Maldonado’s lawyer. “We mourn Ofelia’s passing, and we hope that she will serve as a model for us all for how to be courageous and to fight for what’s right to our last breaths.”
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