{"id":590939,"date":"2026-02-15T04:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T04:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/590939\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T04:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T04:21:11","slug":"teen-daughter-of-ruben-torres-maldonado-chicago-man-detained-by-immigration-agents-in-niles-released-dies-after-cancer-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/590939\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen daughter of Ruben Torres Maldonado, Chicago man detained by immigration agents in Niles, released, dies after cancer battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (WLS) — The teen daughter of a Chicago man who was held in custody by immigration authorities has died after a battle with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, a family spokesperson told ABC7.<\/p>\n

The video in the player above is from a previous report.<\/p>\n

Ruben Torres Maldonado was detained by federal immigration agents outside of a Home Depot in Niles on October 18<\/a> shortly after his 16-year-old daughter, Ofelia Giselle Torres Hidalgo, returned home from the hospital where she was receiving treatment for a stage 4 cancer, Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma.<\/p>\n

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Torres returned to the Northwest Side of Chicago and spoke with ABC7<\/a> after being released from DHS custody in October.<\/p>\n

His daughter Ofelia continued her fight with cancer with more treatments scheduled over the past few month. She told ABC7 her fight became easier with her father back by her side, enjoying the little moments together.<\/p>\n

“We spend time together just being lazy honestly just watching movies, eating together, just simple things,” she said in October. “I am so happy to have him back. Those two weeks without him were really hard.”<\/p>\n

READ MORE |<\/strong> Father of cancer patient says he endured ‘inhumane conditions’ at Broadview ICE facility: EXCLUSIVE<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement Saturday, a family spokesperson said, “Three days before her death, an immigration judge in Chicago ruled that Ofelia’s father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was conditionally entitled to receive “cancellation of removal” due to the hardships his deportation would cause his U.S. citizen children, providing him with a pathway to lawful permanent residence and eventually U.S. citizenship. Ofelia was present via Zoom at her father’s hearing to witness her family’s victory.”<\/p>\n

“Ofelia was heroic and brave in the face of ICE’s detention and threatened deportation of her father,” Kalman Resnick, the attorney representing Torres, said in a statement. “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.”<\/p>\n

This is a developing story.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — The teen daughter of a Chicago man who was held in custody by immigration authorities…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":590940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[255475,960,10582,106792,5462,14443,15565,15153,106787,106786,175462,175464,5386,1818,106793,175465,165214,175463,175460,175459,175461,175466,164689,17296],"class_list":["post-590939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-255475","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-ice","tag-chicago-immigration","tag-chicago-news","tag-ice-agent","tag-ice-agents","tag-ice-arrest","tag-ice-chicago","tag-ice-in-chicago","tag-ice-in-niles","tag-ice-niles","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-immigration-news","tag-lakeview-chicago","tag-mike-quigley","tag-niles-ice","tag-niles-il","tag-niles-illinois","tag-niles-news","tag-ruben-torres","tag-ruben-torres-maldonado","tag-us-immigration"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116072735331946549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}