An 18-month-old Venezuelan girl identified as “Amalia” was released Friday from the Dilley Immigration Processing Center following a federal lawsuit, NBC News reported Saturday.

The family, who entered the U.S. in 2024 via the CBP One app, had been compliant with monitoring programs in El Paso before being abruptly detained in December and transferred to the remote Texas facility.

While detained, Amalia’s health plummeted. Despite eight clinic visits where she received only basic fever medication, her condition became critical on Jan. 18 when her blood oxygen levels plunged to 50%.

Rushed to a San Antonio hospital, she was treated for pneumonia, Covid-19, RSV, and severe respiratory distress. “She was at the brink of dying,” stated Elora Mukherjee, director of Columbia Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic.

The lawsuit alleges that after ten days of intensive care, ICE returned the medically fragile toddler to detention against the doctor's recommendations.

Once back at Dilley, staff confiscated her prescribed nebulizer and albuterol. Her parents were forced to wait hours in outdoor “pill lines” in the cold, only to be denied the life-saving breathing treatments.

Medical experts warned of a “high risk for medical decompensation and death” if she remained confined.

Her release was secured only after lawyers filed an emergency habeas corpus petition.

While the family is now free, advocates warn the trauma of the ordeal—and the facility's history of contaminated food and medical neglect—will have lasting consequences.