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NBC News: Lawyer Says Toddler Returned to ICE Detention and Denied Prescription Medication

Brett T.
Brett T.  |  8:00 PM on February 10, 2026

Have you ever noticed that when the legacy media print these sensational headlines about wrongdoing by ICE and the Border Patrol, the source is always "the family" or "the family's lawyer"? That's how NBC News can get away with running headlines like this one about denying a toddler prescribed medication … a lawsuit says. A toddler hospitalized with respiratory failure was returned to detention? 

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Mike Hixenbaugh reports for NBC News:

An 18-month-old baby held with her parents at a South Texas immigration detention center became so ill last month that she was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening respiratory failure — then sent back to detention days later, where she was denied daily medication doctors prescribed, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

…

Amalia had been healthy before immigration officers arrested her family in El Paso in December and transferred them to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a remote, prisonlike facility where hundreds of immigrant children are held with their parents. Advocates and pediatric experts have warned that conditions at the center are unsafe for young children.

Amalia’s health quickly deteriorated, the lawsuit says. On Jan. 18, she was rushed to a children’s hospital in San Antonio, where doctors treated her for pneumonia, Covid-19, RSV and severe respiratory distress.

Amalia spent 10 days at a hospital before being returned to immigration detention, according to a federal lawsuit.via Elora Mukherjee

“She was at the brink of dying,” said Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor and the director of the school’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, who filed the petition seeking the family’s release.

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Director of Columbia Law School's Immigrants' Rights Clinic … sounds like an impartial source.

Fortunately, DHS keeps on top of the news and doesn't let it go by unchecked:

The post continues:

… access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. Candidly, this is the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives.

On December 9, 2025, ICE took Kheilin Valero Marcano, Stiven Arrieta Prieto, and their daughter Amalia Arrieta-Valero into custody, and they were detained at the Dilley Facility that is retrofitted for families. During their time in detention, Amalia Arrieta-Valero became ill with a respiratory illness. She IMMEDIATELY received proper medical care and was admitted to the Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio, Texas for treatment. She remained in the hospital for eight days before being cleared for release by a pediatric doctor and returned to the Dilley facility — where she was in the medical unit and received proper treatment and prescribed medicines. 

Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all parents to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App to receive $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport.

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There are plenty of attorneys standing by to help people who are here illegally to sue the U.S. government.

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And you know the law firm suing ICE sent out the press release to all of the broadcast and cable networks to see which ones would pick it up and run with it.

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