Overview
- ICE freed Andrea Pedro-Francisco after months in custody, and her lawyers say she will return to Minnesota to obtain a surgeon-recommended operation.
- Pedro-Francisco was detained during Operation Metro Surge on Feb. 5 just days before a scheduled Feb. 11 surgery to remove a large ovarian cyst, and she spent roughly four months in El Paso facilities without that operation.
- Nine independent medical reviewers who saw her records concluded surgery was urgently needed and warned that failure to treat the cyst could cause infertility or death.
- ICE and DHS maintained onsite clinicians evaluated her and said she was not a candidate for surgery, while her attorneys report repeated denials or stalls of habeas petitions and humanitarian parole requests.
- Her case highlights broader problems at Camp East Montana and other Texas detention sites where inspectors and advocates have reported deaths, a measles outbreak, staffing shortfalls, and nearly 50 standards violations that critics say endanger detainee health.