Andrea Pedro-Francisco has been in ICE detention in El Paso since February 4 with an untreated ovarian cyst. Her attorney Ruby Powers says ICE is dismissing her pain, calling it constipation, while her condition worsens by the week.
“They’re Gaslighting Her”
Ruby Powers had one message after visiting her client at the El Paso ICE processing center last week: this is a medical emergency that ICE is pretending does not exist.
Andrea Pedro-Francisco, 23, has an ovarian cyst that has grown to the size of a tennis ball. She had surgery scheduled to remove it on February 11. Six days before that appointment, on February 4, ICE agents arrested her in Burnsville, Minnesota, as part of Operation Metro Surge — the sweeping immigration enforcement campaign that targeted the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. She was transferred to El Paso and has been detained ever since.
The surgery never happened. The cyst has continued to grow. And the medical response from ICE, according to Powers, has been not just insufficient — it has been dismissive to the point of denial.
“She is having more bleeding and she is having more discomfort and pain,” Powers said. “They’re almost gaslighting her into thinking that she doesn’t have a problem and that it is like constipation or something.”
Powers describes healthcare providers at the detention facility performing ultrasounds, telling Andrea there is nothing there, and handing her constipation medication. She takes it. The pain continues — and has now spread to her back, with her period extending from three days to ten.
ICE’s own public statement confirms Andrea has an ovarian cyst. The agency acknowledges she was diagnosed during an emergency room visit. And yet the treatment she is receiving, her attorney says, is ibuprofen.
“She is not getting adequate medical treatment,” Powers said. “She needs surgery. And someone from ICE said, ‘Well, she can go get medical treatment when she gets to her final destination.'”
Who Is Andrea
Andrea came to the United States from a highland Indigenous town in Guatemala in 2019, when she was 16 years old, alongside her mother. They fled violence against women and Indigenous communities in their home country — exactly the circumstances US asylum law is designed to protect against. She has a pending asylum claim. She has never been ordered deported. She has no criminal record.
In Burnsville, she became part of a community. She plays guitar and other instruments for her church, where she was preparing to become a deacon. She cares for her siblings. She works to support her family.
“She plays instruments for her church and is a strong believer. She cares for her siblings and is very dedicated to her family — I think almost sacrificing her education and her plans and goals to be a dutiful daughter,” Powers said.
She was not a priority for enforcement under any standard. She had no criminal record, no deportation order, no judicial warrant. She was on her way to her housecleaning job when she was arrested.
A Facility With a Death Record
After her arrest, Andrea was first transferred to Camp East Montana — a massive tent detention facility on Fort Bliss military base outside El Paso, the largest immigration detention center in the United States, built to hold up to 5,000 people.
The conditions there are extensively documented. Since it opened, at least two people have died at Camp East Montana in 2026 alone. Geraldo Campos Lunas died on January 3 — his death was ruled a homicide. Victor Manuel Díaz, a 36-year-old Nicaraguan with no criminal record who was also swept up during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, was transferred to the facility and died eight days later on January 14. His family has demanded the release of his autopsy, which has not been made public.
A San Francisco Chronicle investigation found that at least 17 of the 48 deaths in ICE custody since Trump returned to office were the result of delayed or failed medical care. One of those deaths involved Francisco Gaspar Cristóbal Andrés, a 48-year-old Guatemalan man who died of liver cirrhosis after being transferred from Camp East Montana to a hospital. His case was found to lack a medical history.
“What a coincidence that my husband was fine and it turns out that he is now dead,” his widow told the El Paso Times. “I know they killed him.”
“It is very clear these are no longer detention and deportation sites — they are actually death sites,” said Marisa Limon, executive director of Las Americas, an El Paso immigrant rights organization. “People that we are speaking with that are detained — that is one of their greatest fears: ‘I don’t want to die in here.'”
Andrea has since been moved from Camp East Montana to the ICE processing center near El Paso International Airport, which opened in 1967. Powers was told the transfer was “for her medical” — with no further explanation given.
Congress Is Demanding Answers. ICE Is Not Responding.
U.S. Representative Angie Craig, the Minnesota Democrat whose district includes Burnsville, has been pressing ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for more than a month to address Andrea’s situation. She is not mincing words.
“For over a month, my office has gone back and forth with ICE officials about Andrea’s condition,” Craig said. “We’ve been ignored, put off, and lied to about the treatment she has received while in detention. Andrea needs surgery and she needs to be released from ICE custody in order for that to happen. That’s why I am working with her family and her lawyers to push for humanitarian parole — so that she can get the care she needs and be reunited with her loved ones. It’s what she deserves.”
Craig previously held a press conference on the quiet Burnsville street where Andrea was arrested, calling her situation “a life or death situation.” She is not exaggerating. A tennis ball-sized ovarian cyst carries the risk of rupture, internal bleeding, and in extreme cases, death. The standard treatment — laparoscopic surgery — was already booked. ICE’s arrest made it impossible to proceed.
Amnesty International has issued an urgent action document on Andrea’s behalf, calling on the US government to release her or provide the medical care her condition requires. The designation is reserved for cases of immediate threat to health or life.
The Legal Path: A Hostile Judge and One Door Still Open
Andrea’s attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition on February 13, arguing her indefinite detention was unlawful. On April 2, U.S. District Judge Leon Schydlower of El Paso denied it, citing a Fifth Circuit ruling permitting indefinite detention for people arrested in the interior of the US after unauthorized entry.
The outcome was shaped less by the law than by chance. Federal cases in El Paso are randomly assigned to one of four district judges. The other three have generally ruled that people in Andrea’s situation are entitled to a bond hearing. Schydlower has consistently denied such petitions. Her case was assigned to him.
Humanitarian parole is now the primary remaining path. It is a discretionary power — ICE can release a detainee on medical grounds without a court order, if it chooses. Powers has formally requested it. ICE has not responded.
“I think we need to realize that humans are being detained under our government’s power who are not getting the medical treatment that they need,” Powers said. “Would you want yourself to be in that situation? Would you want your mom, your kid? No way.”
Her Mother Is Waiting
Andrea’s mother Lucia, who came with her from Guatemala and has lived with her in Burnsville, has not stopped asking for her daughter’s return. At a press conference held in Burnsville in early April, a Haven Watch volunteer read Lucia’s letter aloud:
“I think of and cry for Andrea day and night. I want her to safely come back to me soon. I do not want my daughter to be deported because she and I suffered a lot in our home country.”
If Someone You Know Is Detained Without Adequate Medical Care
What is happening to Andrea is part of a documented pattern. Forty-eight people have died in ICE custody since Trump returned to office. Seventeen of those deaths have been linked to delayed or failed medical care. The conditions that put Andrea at risk are the same conditions that have already cost other people their lives.
Detained individuals have legal rights — including the right to medical care. Those rights require outside pressure to enforce, which is exactly why having experienced legal representation from the first moment of detention matters.
Powers Law Group has experience representing detained individuals, filing emergency motions, and pursuing humanitarian parole requests. If you or someone you know is in ICE detention with a medical condition that is not being treated, do not wait. Contact Powers Law Group today.
Sources
- Jeff Abbott, Migrant Held by ICE in El Paso Needs Surgery, Her Attorney Is Concerned, El Paso Times, April 22, 2026. https://www.elpasotimes.com
- Robert Moore, Minnesota Woman Detained by ICE in El Paso Seeks Release as Her Ovarian Cyst Worsens, El Paso Matters, April 20, 2026. https://elpasomatters.org
- Minnesota Reformer, Texas Judge Denies Petition to Release Woman Detained in Minnesota With Medical Condition, April 7, 2026. https://minnesotareformer.com
- Minnesota Reformer, “I Feel Desperate”: Minnesota Woman Suffering Medical Emergency Stuck in Texas Detention, March 16, 2026. https://minnesotareformer.com
- Amnesty International, USA: Andrea Pedro-Francisco — Urgent Action / Medical Concern, AMR 51/0878/2026, 2026. https://www.amnesty.org
- NBC News, As Immigrant Deaths in Custody Grow, ICE Reduces What Details Are Made Public, April 15, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com
- San Francisco Chronicle, Investigation: At Least 17 ICE Detainee Deaths Linked to Medical Neglect, 2026. https://www.sfchronicle.com
- KFF Health News, Deaths in ICE Custody at Highest Rate in Over Two Decades, 2026. https://www.kff.org
- ACLU, Know Your Rights: What to Do If ICE Comes to Your Home, 2025. https://www.aclu.org
- Powers Law Group, As Immigrant Deaths in ICE Custody Rise, the Government Is Releasing Less Information About Each One, April 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
