An 18-month-old baby girl named Amalia spent days battling for breath in a Texas hospital before she was abruptly returned to immigration detention, where doctors had warned her life hung by a thread. Her health struggles began after her family was apprehended in El Paso and sent to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, described as an inhospitable facility that is more prison-like than sanctuary.
Doctors at the center seized all prescribed medications meant to help Amalia recover from pneumonia, the flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and severe respiratory distress. She was left without oxygen tanks and essential medicines by staff who deemed her unfit for treatment within their facilities. Her parents had no choice but to wait in searing heat outside to request basic medical supplies.
Lawyers representing Amalia’s family argued that her condition should not have worsened in detention, where she was separated from medical care designed to keep her alive. Elora Mukherjee, a professor at Columbia Law School and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, filed an urgent federal court petition on behalf of the family after numerous pleas for release went unheeded.
The situation escalated when measles cases were confirmed within the detention center—a health crisis that raised even greater alarms about Amalia’s vulnerability. Doctors who reviewed her medical records testified in sworn statements that the conditions at Dilley posed a severe threat to young children like Amalia, and especially during an already vulnerable time of illness.
Only after Mukherjee’s team filed an emergency habeas corpus challenge did federal courts intervene and release Amalia and her parents from the center. They had been held captive by immigration authorities for days without proper medical care, their survival hanging precariously in the balance until they were finally freed to seek treatment at a nearby hospital.
This harrowing experience highlights not just the dire state of child detainees within U.S. detention centers, but also the tragic human toll of neglect and poor resource allocation in these facilities, where young lives are needlessly endangered.