El Paso, Texas – Medical experts are warning that a 23-year-old Guatemalan woman detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces serious health risks after allegedly being denied urgently needed surgery for months.
Andrea Pedro Francisco was detained by ICE in Minnesota in February just days before she was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove a painful ovarian cyst. After suffering severe abdominal pain at the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, she was hospitalized and later returned to ICE custody.
According to reporting by the Texas Tribune, eight OB-GYNs and an emergency physician who reviewed Pedro Francisco’s medical records concluded she urgently requires surgery and warned that continued delays could cause infertility, organ damage, sepsis, or potentially death. Some physicians also raised concerns the cyst could be cancerous.
ICE officials disputed those conclusions, saying agency medical staff determined she is “not a candidate for surgical intervention” and that she continues receiving medical monitoring and care.
The case has drawn criticism from immigrant advocates and human rights organizations as the Trump administration expands detention operations nationwide. Pedro Francisco’s attorneys accuse ICE of ignoring outside medical advice while relying primarily on over-the-counter pain medication despite repeated complaints of severe pain.
Her legal efforts for release and humanitarian parole have so far been denied as litigation over her detention and medical treatment continues in federal court.
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