(CHICAGO) — A Chicago teen who fought for her father’s release from immigration detention while she was battling stage 4 cancer, has died, a representative for her family says.
Ofelia Torres died Friday at age 16, according to the family representative. The cause of death was metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
Torres grabbed the national spotlight last fall after her undocumented father, Ruben Torres-Maldonado, was detained by immigration agents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” Torres posted a video on social media calling for his release, and was also interviewed on ABC News’ “Nightline.”
A representative for Torres’ family said that just three days before she died, an immigration judge ruled that her father was conditionally entitled to receive cancellation of removal, which could provide a pathway to a green card. Torres watched the hearing virtually, the family said.
In the “Nightline” interview last fall, Torres said she initially tried to keep her cancer diagnosis private, but said she was speaking out to defend her father.
“I need the world to know my dad’s story and if that means letting the world know I have cancer, so be it. I don’t care,” she said. “I need my dad.”
In a statement, Kalman Resnick, the attorney representing Torres’ father, said: “Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father. 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.”
Torres-Maldonado was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a Home Depot in Niles, Illinois, outside Chicago on Oct. 18 before being released on bond about two weeks later.
Resnick, who represented Torres-Maldonado, told reporters at a press conference last fall that federal agents surrounded Torres-Maldonado’s truck, smashed a window and dragged him into a vehicle at gunpoint.
At the time, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin alleged that Torres-Maldonado had backed into a government vehicle while attempting to flee.
DHS maintained Torres-Maldonado was a “criminal illegal alien” with a history of driving without insurance, driving without a valid license and speeding.
In the “Nightline” interview Torres said that despite how her father was treated, she had “nothing but love” for the federal agents who arrested her father.
“To the ICE agents who smashed my dad’s window, to the ICE agent who pointed a gun at my dad, I’m not mad at you … I just want you to know that that was not the right thing to do,” she told ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos.
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