ICE denies humanitarian parole request for Minnesota woman in detention with ovarian cyst
WASHINGTON (Minnesota Reformer) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it will not release a Minnesota woman facing deportation on humanitarian parole to receive surgery to remove a painful, tennis ball-sized ovarian cyst at risk of causing severe medical complications.
Democratic lawmakers, clergy and human rights advocates have called for the release of Andrea Pedro-Francisco to receive medical care while her asylum application is considered, but ICE informed her lawyer on Tuesday that she must remain in detention.
Pedro-Francisco, a 23-year-old native of Guatemala, has been in ICE detention since being arrested in Burnsville on her way to work cleaning houses during Operation Metro Surge on Feb. 5 — a week before she was scheduled to have surgery to remove the cyst.
She was swiftly transferred to a Texas detention center despite there being no warrant for her arrest and her having no criminal record. She says she entered the United States in 2019 through a legal port of entry with her mother when she was 16 years old to seek asylum.
She was held at Camp East Montana, a crowded, tent detention center outside El Paso that has had outbreaks of measles, tuberculosis and COVID-19, and then moved to another facility, the El Paso Processing Center. Despite being prescribed opioids for the pain in Minnesota, she has only received Tylenol or ibuprofen in detention.
The request for humanitarian parole was a last-ditch attempt to secure medical care after a federal judge in Texas rejected her lawsuit challenging her detention.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who has championed Pedro-Francisco’s case, visited her in detention in Texas on Monday during congressional oversight visits of Camp East Montana and the El Paso Processing Center.
“Getting word that ICE had denied Andrea’s request for humanitarian parole the day after meeting with local ICE officials and sitting with her in El Paso is beyond disappointing – it’s sickening,” Craig said in a statement to the Reformer.
“I wish I could say that I am shocked, but I’m not. This is Donald Trump’s ICE. This fight for Andrea’s release isn’t over yet,” said Craig, who is running for U.S. Senate.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment on denying humanitarian parole.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said previously in response to a request for comment that Pedro-Francisco has been seen by medical staff multiple times and was once transported to an emergency room, where a doctor confirmed the existence of an ovarian cyst.
“ICE maintains longstanding practices to provide comprehensive medical care, including access to vaccines, medical, dental, and mental health services, as well as medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. This is the best healthcare that many individuals have received in their lives,” DHS said in a statement shared by spokesperson Leticia Zamarripa last month.
A lack of medical care has been well-documented in ICE detention facilities. Immigration attorneys and human rights advocates say they believe ICE is intentionally withholding treatment to coerce people to voluntarily deport, like a man from Minnesota who agreed to return to Mexico so he could access medication for his diabetes.
More than 45 people have died in ICE custody since the start of Trump’s second term, according to KFF.
Pedro-Francisco’s immigration attorney Ruby Powers said ICE’s claim that it provides “the best health care” is both “offensive and irrelevant.”
“We are pursuing all available legal remedies and call on ICE to immediately reconsider the parole denial and provide Andrea the surgical care she needs,” Powers said in a statement.
(Story written by Max Nesterak – Minnesota Reformer)
