Immigration authorities move to deport Key Bridge victim's former partner

Federal immigration authorities have moved to deport Zoila Guerra Sandoval, a Guatemalan native who lived in Maryland for nearly two decades and raised a daughter with José Mynor López, one of the six workers killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge fell into the Patapsco River.

Sandoval’s attorney said her applications for humanitarian-based protection were denied and deportation proceedings were filed against her. NPR reported that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent Sandoval a letter dated April 14, 2026, denying her request for parole in place and notifying her that she is now in removal proceedings.

The case has drawn sharp attention in Baltimore because López was among the six highway and construction workers killed when the Dali struck a support pier on the Key Bridge at about 1:28 to 1:30 a.m. on March 26, 2024. The bridge, a 47-year fixture over the Patapsco River and a critical gateway to the Port of Baltimore, collapsed into the water in a disaster that set off a federal response to clear wreckage, reopen the port and support the city’s recovery.

At the time of the collapse, the Biden administration invited about 30 people with immediate connections to the victims to apply for a humanitarian-based temporary status. WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates reported that federal authorities are now moving ahead with deportation proceedings against Sandoval, and that she and López were co-parenting their daughter.

CASA said it will fight the decision and described it as a reversal of assurances made to grieving families. The organization’s response has put the case at the center of a larger debate over whether humanitarian protections offered after a disaster can change when immigration policy shifts in Washington.

For Baltimore, the issue lands far beyond one family. The bridge collapse was both a local tragedy and a national infrastructure failure, and it left the city confronting the loss of six workers whose deaths became part of the long aftermath. Sandoval’s case now tests how far federal compassion reaches for the people left behind when disaster reshapes a family’s life in Maryland.