Humanitarian protection from deportation has been given to the family of a 4-year-old girl from Bakersfield who has a rare medical ailment, enabling her to continue receiving life-saving care in the United States.
Public indignation at the girl’s predicament prompted hundreds of lawmakers to support her, and The Times has recognized her by her initials, S.G.V. In 2023, the youngster and her Mexican parents were granted temporary authorization to legally enter the United States through Tijuana.
S.G.V. and her parents were at risk of deportation after the Trump administration revoked their legal protections. She has small bowel syndrome, which stops her body from fully absorbing nutrients from meals, and her doctor at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles warned that she may die within days if she stopped receiving treatment.
The girl’s attorneys said in a statement that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services contacted them on May 28 to discuss processing her humanitarian parole application, following extensive media coverage. She went to a biometrics appointment in Bakersfield on Friday with her mother, Deysi Vargas.
Rebecca Brown of the organization Public Counsel said, “The agency has made sure that a four-year-old girl can continue to receive the specialized medical treatment that keeps her alive by moving quickly.” Nevertheless, the broad policy to eliminate humanitarian parole continues to hurt countless families. We request that the authorities make sure that nobody is in danger.
Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla of California were among 38 congressional Democrats who denounced the removal of the family’s status last week and called on the DHS to restore it.
The MPs wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on May 29 that “S.G.V. will die if nothing is done.” “We urge a prompt response from your Department and a swift decision to extend this family’s legal status in the U.S.” The family’s circumstances “clearly meet the need for humanitarian aid,” the MPs stated.
Acting field office director Carmen Paniagua of Citizenship and Immigration Services informed the family and their lawyer on Monday that “effective June 2, 2025, you have been granted Humanitarian Parole for a period of one year.”
The federal government informed Vargas in April that their lawful work permit and humanitarian safeguards had been revoked. The warning warned them that “the federal government will find you” if they didn’t leave willingly.
As of Tuesday, almost $40,000 had been raised through an online campaign for S.G.V.’s care.
For hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the United States through various Biden-era programs, the Trump administration has revoked their humanitarian protections. Many others have received similar orders to leave or risk criminal charges and other legal repercussions.
Attorney Brown said there was no way to notify the immigration agency that a child’s life was in jeopardy when the family’s parole was revoked.
In the statement with Public Counsel directing attorney Gina Amato Lough, Brown stated, “It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response — something that used to take a single phone call.” To guarantee that any family facing impending harm receives the same timely consideration that S.G.V. and her parents received, they asked the government to reopen lines of communication.
Padilla and Rep. Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), who spearheaded her Democratic colleagues in composing the letter to Noem, were among the lawmakers who expressed their satisfaction with Citizenship and Immigration Services’ decision to extend the family’s parole by another year.
However, according to Rivas, the girl shouldn’t have been put in a life-or-death scenario in the first place.
“This situation is a prime example of the Trump administration being unfit, unprepared and unqualified to handle immigration policy decisions with empathy and compassion,” Rivas stated.
