NATIONAL NEWS

Lawyer says Trump administration revokes parole of Mexican girl receiving lifesaving care in US

May 28, 2025, 3:49 PM

A 4-year-old Mexican girl, who has short bowel syndrome, attends a news conference in Los Angeles, ...

A 4-year-old Mexican girl, who has short bowel syndrome, attends a news conference in Los Angeles, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, after her and her mother's humanitarian parole was terminated and they were ordered to self-deport. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Trump administration has revoked permission for a 4-year-old Mexican girl who receives lifesaving medical care from a California hospital to stay in the country, attorneys for the family said on Wednesday.

Lawyer Gina Amato said the girl’s mother was notified the U.S. government was withdrawing the humanitarian parole the family received in 2023 when she brought her ailing child to the U.S.-Mexico border. She received the notifications in April and May and was told the family is subject to potential deportation, Amato said.

Since then, the girl has made it out of the hospital thanks to a treatment that provides intravenous nutrition through a backpack she wears. Lawyers said she isn’t strong enough to survive without it as she suffers from short bowel syndrome, which prevents her from being able to take in and process nutrients on her own, and the treatment she receives isn’t available in Mexico.

“Doctors have been clear that she will die within days” without this care, Amato said at a press conference in Los Angeles. “Deporting this family under these conditions is not only unlawful, it constitutes a moral failure that violates the basic tenets of humanity and decency.”

The attorneys did not provide the girl’s real name to protect her privacy.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately comment.

A senior Homeland Security official, in an email sent from an address for media inquiries, said the family is not actively being deported and a more recent application for parole that was filed two weeks ago is still being considered.

The Trump administration has been pushing to dismantle policies from President Joe Biden’s administration that allowed for people to live legally in the U.S., generally for two years.

Humanitarian parole, which doesn’t put migrants on a path to U.S. citizenship, was widely used during the Biden administration to alleviate pressure on the U.S.-Mexico southern border. It was previously used on a case-by-case basis to address individual emergencies and also for people fleeing humanitarian crises around the world including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the late 1970s.

In Mexico, the girl was largely confined to a hospital because of her medical condition, her mother Deysi Vargas told reporters. Once the family arrived at the border, U.S. officials had the child taken to a hospital in San Diego, where she stayed until she was well enough to join a program through Children’s Hospital Los Angeles that allows her to receive treatment at home in Bakersfield, California, Vargas said.

Now, she enjoys going to the park and the supermarket — and above all, living outside a hospital’s walls, Vargas said.

“With the help she has received in the United States, my daughter has the opportunity to leave the hospital, see the world, and live like a girl her age,” Vargas said in Spanish.

Her daughter sat nearby, smiling and playing with stickers, while wearing the black backpack that helps keep her alive.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles declined to comment for the story,

Attorneys said they have written to U.S. government officials asking if they made a mistake and filed a fresh application for humanitarian parole for the family.

Amato, who is directing attorney of Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said they haven’t received an answer and the notice indicated the family could be deported. She said she has also reached out to elected officials for help.

National News

Associated Press

What to know about reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who were pardoned by Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who were in prison after being convicted on federal charges of bank fraud and tax evasion, were pardoned by President Donald Trump and walked free Wednesday. The couple is best known for the long-running TV series “Chrisley Knows Best,” which followed their family and luxurious […]

9 minutes ago

A fan takes a photo with Savannah Chrisley, daughter of reality television star Todd Chrisley, afte...

Associated Press

Trump issues series of pardons for politicians, a union leader and a rapper

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a series of pardons on Wednesday, awarding them to a former New York congressman, a Connecticut governor, a rapper known as “NBA YoungBoy,” a labor union leader and a onetime Army officer who flaunted safety measures during the Coronavirus pandemic. His actions mixed Trump’s willingness to pardon high-profile […]

29 minutes ago

Associated Press

Judge rules that Trump administration wrongly ended humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration wrongly ended humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of people allowed to live in the United States temporarily. The decision is another legal setback for President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation, but it may prove temporary and its immediate impact was unclear. U.S. District Judge […]

42 minutes ago

Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, reacts after spelling his word correctly during the semifinals of the S...

Associated Press

National Spelling Bee runners-up rarely go on to win. But Faizan Zaki hopes to defy the odds

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — With the benefit of hindsight, Vikram Raju knows there was almost no chance he would win after being a runner-up in the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee. “The chances of getting that high are infinitesimally small, and the chances of doing it again are an order of magnitude smaller, obviously,” […]

43 minutes ago

FILE - A military aircraft waits for migrants to board from a bus at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Tx., Th...

Associated Press

Trump administration says it’s working to return a Guatemalan man deported to Mexico

The Trump administration said in court filings Wednesday that it was working to bring back a Guatemalan man who was deported to Mexico in spite of his fears of being harmed there, days after a federal judge ordered the administration to facilitate his return. The man, who is gay, was protected from being returned to […]

44 minutes ago

FILE - People gather in support of transgender youth during a rally at the Utah State Capitol Tuesd...

Associated Press

Utah lawmakers said gender-affirming care is harmful to kids. Their own study contradicts that claim

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — When Utah Republicans passed a ban on gender-affirming health care for children and teens in 2023, they argued it was needed to protect vulnerable kids from treatments that could cause long-term harm. Years later, the results of a study commissioned under the same law contradict that claim, and the Republican-led […]

53 minutes ago

Lawyer says Trump administration revokes parole of Mexican girl receiving lifesaving care in US