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ICE detains father of Chicago teen battling cancer
16-year-old Ofelia Torres, a Lake View High School student fighting Stage 4 cancer, had just returned home from 39 days of chemotherapy when her father was detained by ICE. Block Club Chicago reporter Patrick Filbin joins "ChicagoLIVE" to share the family’s story and the community’s call for compassion.
The video in the above player was from Oct. 21, 2025.
CHICAGO - The Chicago teenager who fought for her father’s release from ICE custody last year, has died from a rare cancer, according to a family spokesperson.
Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo died on Friday from stage 4 Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, according to a news release.
She was 16 years old.
The backstory:
Last year, Torres made national headlines after she pleaded for the release of her father from ICE custody.
Her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, had his removal conditionally cancelled due to "hardships his deportation would cause his U.S. citizen children," according to the release.
"Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father," said Kalman Resnick, the attorney representing Torres, in a statement. "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 was a junior at Lake View High School in Chicago.
Private funeral arrangements have been made. A GoFundMe account made to raise money for her family has raised over $120,000.