CTU on the Death of Ofelia Torres

A statement from the Chicago Teachers Union on the passing of Ofelia Torres, a 16-year-old junior at Lake View High School:

After months of fighting both cancer and the cruelty of Trump’s unconscionable and inhumane immigration policies, one of our own precious young scholars, Ofelia Torres, has lost her battle with cancer. She passed away just days after her heroic fight for her father’s freedom resulted in an immigration judge offering a potential pathway to citizenship for her father—who was taken by ICE while trying to care for his family. Ofelia’s fight illuminated the fear that has gripped immigrant communities amid the racial profiling, detention of family members and use of deadly force by federal agents, while also struggling with the skyrocketing cost of health care. Her courage and her story will live on at Lake View High School and in the hearts of educators across this city.

For far too long, Trump and his far-right allies have worked to convince the public that immigrant families are somehow the problem. The truth is the opposite: their labor, their love, and their commitment to family and community are part of the backbone of this nation. From the so-called ‘Midway Blitz’ here in Chicago to continued assaults on communities of color in Minnesota and beyond, these actions echo some of the darkest chapters in our history—periods marked by state-sanctioned violence and terror like Chicago’s 1917 Red Summer, the anti-immigrant strikebreaking in Washington state by federal troops in 1919 or the assault on Black folks trying to register to vote throughout the 20th century.

Like the countless stories of family separation during xenophobic and anti-Black periods throughout our nation’s history, Ofelia and her family’s experience is not isolated. It reflects a broader pattern of fear, instability, and inhumanity imposed on people who are our neighbors, our friends, and integral members of our school communities. We grieve this loss deeply, and we recommit ourselves to building a world worthy of the young people we are entrusted to serve.

A student dying of cancer should never have to experience the anxiety and stress that Ofelia endured to ensure her father was treated with humanity and compassion. Rest in Power Ofelia.