Trump administration restores legal status for 4-year-old with life-threatening illness

A chronically ill 4-year-old will be allowed to stay in the United States after the Trump administration granted her temporary legal status this week, her lawyers said.

The move reverses an April decision to revoke the girl's legal status, putting her and her family at risk of potential deportation. Her mother and lawyers said that leaving the country would be a potential death sentence for the child.

She came to the U.S. from Mexico with her family in 2023 seeking treatment for a rare condition called short bowel syndrome. The illness prevents her from processing nutrients on her own and requires round-the-clock care.

Since then, healthcare and equipment from Children's Hospital Los Angeles has allowed her to live at home in Bakersfield for the first time in her short life. Her mother, Deysi Vargas, said that her daughter spends most hours of the day hooked up to intravenous tubes.

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At a recent news conference, the child wore a black backpack containing that equipment, with the tubes barely visible. Otherwise, she appeared like any other 4-year-old, squirming in her seat and beaming while her mother and lawyers implored the Trump administration to take mercy.

Vargas said at that news conference that if her daughter were forced to return to Mexico, she would have to return to full-time hospitalization. Lawyers said that the equipment that allows the girl to live outside of the hospital is only available in the U.S., and that her doctors said she could die within days without her treatment.

Lawmakers added to the outcry in a letter last week to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

"It is our duty to protect the sick, vulnerable and defenseless," that letter read in part.

Lawyers for the child said in a statement Tuesday that immigration officials reached out to the family last week and granted them humanitarian parole again yesterday. It expires June 1, 2026.

"While we celebrate this victory, we cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought [her] to the brink," the lawyers said in a statement. "It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response — something that used to take a single phone call."