Congress questions immigration officials about enforcement tactics
Immigration officials are facing questions in Congress over enforcement efforts and the shooting deaths of two Americans in Minneapolis.
A Chicago teenager who gained national attention for her fight for the release of her father from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025 has died, a family spokesperson announced.
Ofelia Gisele Torres Hidalgo, 16, passed away on Friday, February 13th from stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a family spokesperson said in a statement. Torres Hidalgo was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of soft tissue cancer in December 2024.
The teenage girl was undergoing cancer treatment and had been home from visiting family for the weekend when her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was arrested at a hardware store in suburban Chicago in October 2025, and a GoFundMe page was set up for the family. He was detained during the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz, a large-scale immigration enforcement operation that brought in a large number of federal agents to the Chicago area.
After his arrest, Torres Hidalgo posted a video on social media calling for his release. She said her father was a hard-working immigrant who took care of her younger brother while she stayed in the hospital for treatment.
“Like many other fathers, my father is a hardworking man who wakes up early in the morning and goes to work without complaint, thinking about his family,” Torres Hidalgo said in the video. “I think it’s so unfair that hard-working immigrant families are targeted just because they weren’t born here.”
Torres Hidalgo “successfully fought for her father’s freedom,” and a family spokesperson said an immigration judge in Chicago ruled three days before her death that her father was eligible for conditional “revocation of deportation” because deportation would cause hardship to his children, who are U.S. citizens.
The ruling gives Torres-Maldonado a path to lawful permanent resident status and, ultimately, U.S. citizenship, the statement said. Torres Hidalgo attended her father’s hearing last week via Zoom.
“Ofelia was heroic and courageous in the face of ICE detention and the threat of her father’s deportation,” Torres Maldonado’s attorney, Kalman Resnick, said in a statement. “We mourn Ofelia’s death and hope she serves as an example to all of us on how to have courage and fight for what is right until the last moment.”
“A solid, dedicated, and truly inspiring life.”
Torres Hidalgo was a senior at Chicago’s Lakeview High School, according to the family’s attorney. Arrangements have been made for a private funeral.
A GoFundMe page set up by Torres Hidalgo’s tutor, Valerie Wadicki, initially raised money to pay for Torres-Maldonado’s legal costs and to help her family while she was in custody. In an update on Sunday, Feb. 15, Wadicki said the fundraiser was arranged to help with Torres Hidalgo’s funeral arrangements.
“It is with great sadness that we share with everyone the passing of Ofelia Torres,” the GoFundMe page reads. “We thank you for your generosity in supporting this family during this difficult time. We also thank you for respecting their privacy as they mourn this great loss.”
Wadicki described Torres Hidalgo as “bright, curious, and thoughtful.” Wadicki said he worked with Torres Hidalgo as a tutor while she was receiving treatment for cancer.
“While working with Ofelia, I got to know her family and learned what a devoted mother and hard-working and loving father she was,” Wadicki said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement Sunday, Feb. 15, that the boy “lived a solid, dedicated and truly inspiring life.”
“Today I join Chicagoans across the city in remembering Ofelia Torres, a young woman who fought for her father and family in the face of a brutal and targeted campaign in which Donald Trump sought to strip us of the very humanity that defines our families and our communities,” Johnson said.
A judge rules that the father of a Chicago teenager was illegally detained.
On Oct. 18, 2025, Torres-Maldonado had just left a Home Depot store in Niles, a village on Chicago’s northwest edge, after collecting supplies for work, according to the GoFundMe page. As he attempted to leave, he was detained by federal agents.
“ICE officers called his name. He tried to ignore them and got into his car and locked the door,” according to the GoFundMe page. “At that time, one of the four ICE agents began banging on the passenger side of his vehicle in an attempt to get into the vehicle.”
According to the GoFundMe page, ICE agents threatened Torres-Maldonado with a gun. Torres-Maldonado then voluntarily exited the vehicle and was arrested.
At the time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told NBC Chicago that Torres-Maldonado “has been charged with multiple counts of driving without insurance, driving without a valid license, and speeding,” and claimed he tried to flee in his vehicle.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that painter Torres Maldonado entered the United States in 2003 and lived in Chicago with his partner of 20 years. According to the paper and NBC Chicago, a judge ruled on Oct. 24, 2025, that Torres-Maldonado was unlawfully detained and later released on bond.
