Chicago teen who battled cancer while fighting for father's release from ICE detention dies

Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidaldo, a Chicago teen who successfully fought for her father's release from federal immigration detainment, died Friday after battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer, according to a news release.

Ofelia, a junior at Lake View High School, had been battling metastatic alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer, since December 2024. Last year, the cancer progressed to stage 4 and she began receiving chemotherapy treatments.

One day after she was released for the weekend from Lurie Children's Hospital to see family and friends in mid-October, her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was detained by ICE agents in Niles. Doctors said she was unable to continue treatment "because of the stress and disruption" caused by the arrest.

Following widespread demands for his release, including a video made by Ofelia on social media, Maldonado was released on bond from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in late-October.

"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 Saturday. "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."

On Tuesday, an immigration judge in Chicago conditionally entitled her father to receive a "cancellation of removal," due to the impact his deportation would have on his children who are citizens in the U.S. According to the news release, this would provide him with a pathway to lawful permanent residency and eventually U.S. citizenship.

Ofelia was able to watch her father's hearing via Zoom.

A GoFundMe page was started for Ofelia in October and has collected more than $119,000.