EL PASO TIMES: US Rep. Angie Craig visits ICE detainee, seeks humanitarian release

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig has confirmed that medical staff at ICE's El Paso service processing center have confirmed that her detained constituent, Andrea Pedro Francisco, has a large ovarian cyst after a ultrasound was performed. 

Craig announced the confirmation after spending around 40 minutes with Pedro Francisco on Monday, May 4. The congresswoman from Minnesota traveled to El Paso to meet with the 23-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who had been detained during ICE's operations in the state. 

"She is still in tremendous pain," Craig said. "She remains hopeful based on that is who she is as a person of faith. She hopes that she will soon get to come home and have the surgery in Minnesota. And at a minimum, she should have the surgery here to make sure that no one else dies in ICE custody." 

An ovarian cyst is a sack that fills with liquid, according to the Mayo Clinic. While they can sometimes go away on their own, doctors say that a woman must seek medical attention if the cyst causes severe back and pelvis pain, as is the case with Pedro Francisco. 

An ovarian cyst can be deadly if left untreated. 

Pedro Francisco was detained by ICE agents on Feb. 5 in Minnesota during the agency's Operation Metro Surge. At the time of her arrest, she was scheduled to have surgery to remove a large cyst on her ovary, but she has not received proper attention to her health emergency while detained. 

Department of Homeland Security said that she was receiving proper medical attention. 

“Pedro Francisco has been screened and evaluated by medical staff during her detention at Camp East Montana," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement. "Since arriving at Camp East Montana, she has been seen by medical staff onsite seven times, transported to an area emergency room once, and evaluated three times at a local behavioral health center. She was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst during her emergency room visit, for which she received pain medication and was returned to Camp East Montana." 

The congresswoman and Rudy Powers, Pedro Francisco's immigration attorney, are seeking to have her released on a humanitarian parole so she can receive the medical attention she needs. 

Craig, DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party)-Prior Lake, Minnesota, has issued a letter of support and she delivered a packet requesting humanitarian parole. 

Pedro Francisco's case has gained national attention over the denial of attention for her medical condition. Amnesty International issued a call for her release on April 10 and Craig said that the El Paso detention facility has received letters calling for her immediate release. 

She was initially held at the Camp East Montana detention center, where medical staff initially denied she had a cyst, Craig and Pedro Francisco's attorneys said. The cyst was only confirmed after she was transferred to ICE's processing center on Montana Avenue. 

Craig met with Pedro Francisco during a visit to El Paso, where she also toured the immigration detention center. She described seeing detainees with "despair in their eyes."

Andrea Pedro Francisco is an Indigenous Mayan immigrant from the western highlands of Guatemala. 

She migrated to the U.S. with her mother in 2016, when she was 16 years old. She has supported her mom and her siblings since arriving in the U.S. 

Craig said that playing music in the church is Pedro Francisco's passion and that she has noted that not being able to play has led to a growing depression. Pedro Francisco played the bass and piano in her church. 

But amid the ordeal, Craig described Pedro Francisco as very selfless, expressing deep concern for her family. 

Pedro Francisco and her mother had sought asylum in the U.S. But the U.S. government has sought to deport her despite her asylum claim as part of the Trump administration's efforts to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportation.

Concern for Pedro Francisco comes as there has been a sharp increase in deaths in ICE detention centers across the U.S. 

At least 49 immigrants have died in ICE custody since President Donald Trump returned to office, with 18 deaths occurring in 2026. These deaths come as the Trump administration is looking to detain and deport as many immigrants as possible from the U.S. 

The latest death was reported by ICE on May 1. The agency reported that Denny Adan Gonzalez, a 33-year-old immigrant from Cuba held in a detention center in Georgia, died by suicide on April 28. 

Both Craig and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, have raised concerns about the mental health of detainees held in El Paso. These concerns are echoed by academics and advocates, who raise concerns about the impacts of long-term detention on the mental health of detainees. 

“Decades of medical evidence show that solitary confinement places individuals at significantly elevated risk of psychological deterioration and suicidal behavior," Dr. Katherine Peeler, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School said in a statement from Physicians for Human Rights. "When someone in immigration detention is placed in isolation, already separated from family, community, social and legal support, the risk compounds. ICE has received this evidence repeatedly, through our reports, through congressional testimony, through research by their own oversight bodies.

"The continued and widespread use of solitary confinement in this system is not a failure of knowledge or understanding but a failure of will.”