Chicago dad detained by ICE outside Home Depot reunites with daughter with Stage 4 cancer after teen's plea
Ruben Torres Maldanado's 16-year-old daughter pleaded for his release after he was detained by immigration agents outside a Home Depot while she faces an aggressive form of cancer
A Chicago dad who was detained by ICE immigration agents has finally reunited with his daughter, who has cancer, after the incident caused her health to decline to the point that her treatment was halted.
Ruben Torres Maldanado spent 15 days in federal custody after being detained by ICE agents outside a Home Depot in Niles earlier this month. His 16-year-old daughter, Ofelia Torres, has Stage 4 cancer and desperately pleaded for her father's release.
She was diagnosed in December with a rare and aggressive form of soft-tissue cancer called metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma and has been undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Torres Maldanado, a painter and home renovator, has now been released on bond after a judge took Ofelia's treatment into consideration.
US District Judge Jeremy Daniel had said in an order last Friday that Torres Maldanado's detention is illegal and violates his due process rights and that he must be given a bond hearing by October 31. Attorney Kalman Resnick detailed Torres Maldanado's sudden detention during an emotional family reunion on Thursday.
“The ICE officers broke the window of Ruben’s pick-up truck forced him out of the car, never presented a warrant, refused to let him make a call to his wife despite his pleas that he had a severely ill daughter and held him in mandatory detention,” Resnick said, NBC Chicago reports.
He claimed that Torres Maldanado's detention saw Ofelia's health decline. “The chemotherapy was interrupted by this experience that the family had because the daughter’s physical and emotional situation had declined as a result of her father’s detention, and the hospital couldn’t proceed with chemotherapy because of her condition,” Resnick explained.
At a hearing last week, which Ofelia attended in a wheelchair, the family’s attorneys told the judge that she was released from the hospital just a day before her father’s arrest so that she could see family and friends.
“My dad, like many other fathers, is a hard-working person who wakes up early in the morning and goes to work without complaining, thinking about his family,” Ofelia said in a video posted on a GoFundMe page set up for her family. “I find it so unfair that hardworking immigrant families are being targeted just because they were not born here.”
Torres Maldanado was initially held at an ICE processing facility in Broadview before being transferred to a detention center in Indiana. He has lived in the United States since 2003 and has two children, including a 4-year-old son, with partner, Sandibell Hidalgo. The children are both US citizens, according to court records.
He is now out on a $2,000 bond and is seeking permanent residency. The Department of Homeland Security alleges that Torres has been living illegally in the US for years and has a history of driving offenses, including driving without a valid license, without insurance, and speeding.
The DHS also accused Torres Maldanado of failing to comply during his detention. “During Ruben Torres Maldanado's arrest he did not comply with instructions from the officers and attempted to flee in his vehicle and backed into a government vehicle,” a spokesperson said. “The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system.”
However, activists have accused immigration officials of lying. They said he has not been convicted of a crime. “ICE said terrible things about Ruben and they were lies. In fact, the ICE attorney today said Ruben had no criminal record, Mr. Torres Maldonado was subject to mandatory detention that was against the Constitution,” Resnick said.