Deported girl’s cancer care worsens in Mexico after parole denial

A 12-year-old girl with a rare brain tumor is growing sicker in Mexico after U.S. immigration authorities deported her parents and cut off the specialized care that had followed emergency surgery in 2024. Her family says a humanitarian parole request to bring her back for treatment was denied after more than 10 months, leaving a child with seizures, headaches and worsening tests far from the doctors who had been monitoring her recovery.

The girl was 10 when her undocumented parents were deported to Mexico in February 2025. She and four siblings went with them, including three siblings who are also U.S. citizens. The family’s move interrupted months of lifesaving treatment in the United States after doctors removed an unusually rare brain tumor and continued to study her case because of how uncommon it is.

Since then, her condition has deteriorated. The family says she suffered a severe seizure in Mexico that caused her to fall and bruise herself. Because the nearest hospital was about 2 1/2 hours away by car, she had to make a long trip for care, and an MRI and other tests later came back abnormal. U.S. specialists reviewing a May MRI said her brain was not regenerating, which raised the risk that the tumor could return.

Her decline had already been documented earlier in the year. In February 2026, the girl was reported to be dealing with headaches, body pain and more frequent seizures, and doctors warned that without continuous medical care the tumor could redevelop. Her family now says she is not getting the specialized treatment she needs in Mexico.

The case has also become a test of how humanitarian parole is applied when a U.S.-citizen child’s medical needs collide with immigration enforcement. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says parole is discretionary and can be granted case by case for urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit, and it can be requested from outside the United States. In practice, advocates and attorneys say families face major obstacles, including missing passports and the cost and logistics of moving a child back across the border.

Lawmakers have already been drawn into the fight. Reps. Sylvia Garcia of Texas, Adriano Espaillat of New York, Joaquin Castro of Texas and Al Green of Texas, along with Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Alex Padilla of California, were briefed on the family’s situation last year. Garcia later visited the family in Mexico and called for a full investigation and accountability. The family lives in an area of Mexico known for kidnappings of U.S. citizens, and their names are being withheld for safety reasons, underscoring how a medical crisis has been layered onto a security risk and an immigration system that has left a sick child waiting.