An Oregon family detained by border patrol agents last month while seeking medical care for their seven-year-old daughter is heading home after being held in a detention center in Texas for weeks, according to a U.S. lawmaker.
“I’m filled with joy that our Oregon family is coming home and yet outraged for the many other children and families who remain imprisoned by our government. Detention of children and families is immoral,” U.S. Represenative Maxine Dexter, the Democrat of Oregon, said in a statement on Friday.
“End family detention. Defund and dismantle ICE. That is the moral path forward,” she added.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said last week that the family “illegally” entered the U.S. in 2024 through CBP One, a phone app under the Biden administration, aimed at getting border asylum claims appointments with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Newsweek contacted the DHS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Representative Dexter’s office via email on Saturday.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration’s nationwide immigration law enforcement drive has sparked wide debate over how Border Patrol and ICE have been deployed—including detaining children and people seeking asylum.
Government lawyers are increasingly asking judges to “pretermit,” or dismiss, asylum cases without hearings.
Instead applicants are told to seek asylum in “safe third countries,” such as those to have struck a deal with the U.S. like Honduras and Uganda.
On an average day, 170 children were being held behind bars by ICE between January and October 2025, Shannon Heffernan and Anna Flagg, journalists with The Marshall Project, recently told MPR News.
What To Know
The Gresham family—Yohendry De Jesus Crespo, Darianny Liseth Gonzalez de Crespo, and their seven-year-old daughter—was arrested by border patrol agents on January 16. According to reports, the family was on their way to Adventist Health Portland, as Dexter said the seven-year-old girl had a nosebleed that would not stop and a fever.
The family was then detained in an ICE facility in Texas, where they are still believed to be, though Dexter said they will be returning home to Oregon. According to a press release published by Dexter this week, there have been active measles cases in the facility where the Gresham family has been detained, putting the young girl at risk.
“No child, but especially not a sick second grader on the way to urgent care, should be detained by ICE and then trapped in a facility with active measles cases,” the congresswoman told KOIN 6 News.
Active measles cases at the South Texas Family Residential Facility in Dilley, Texas, have been confirmed by DHS. On Thursday, Dexter was denied access to the facility.
It is unclear why the Greshams were arrested. According to Dexter, the family—which DHS said are Venezuelan nationals—has asylum status and an active court date.
What People Are Saying
U.S. Represenative Maxine Dexter, the Democrat of Oregon, said at a rally outside of ICE headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday: “I’m going to take a minute to talk about my constituent, Diana Crespo. Diana is seven years old. She loves to paint. She loves to play with her friends. Last month, she got a fever, her nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. Like any concerned parent with a sick kid, her mom and dad tried to take her to a doctor. They never made it inside.
“Instead, federal agents swarmed their car in a parking lot and abducted them. A friend said the parents were pleading with agents, begging to just let their child see a doctor. The agents didn’t listen. Instead, they sent the family to the Dilley facility in Texas—a detention facility that now has an active measles outbreak. I do not know how Kristi Noem sleeps at night.”
A DHS spokesperson told KATU on Friday: “U.S. Border Patrol arrested Yohendry De Jesus Crespo and Darianny Liseth Gonzalez de Crespo, two illegal aliens from Venezuela, along with their minor child in Portland, Oregon.
“These parents illegally entered the U.S. with their daughter in 2024 through the disastrous CBP One app and were RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration,” it added.
“Any application for asylum does not preclude immigration enforcement. The law requires those in the country illegally claiming asylum to be detained pending removal. You can look it up in the statute. The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
Oregon State Representative Ricki Ruiz told KOIN 6 News: “I was able to briefly talk to them earlier today, and they seemed in really good spirits and eager to come home.”
He added: “We’re going to be fighting for our families, especially those who did it, the way that they were supposed to do it, right. And there’s legal ways. So, you know, they were here seeking better opportunities for their family and leaving violence, only to encounter it again.”
Journalist Anna Flagg told MPR News of children detained by ICE: “These facilities are really not designed to be taking care of children. And the idea of that many children being inside them on any given day, I think, is really concerning.”
What Happens Next
On Friday, Dexter wrote on social media that she was “escorting the Crespo-Gonzales family, including their seven-year-old daughter, back to Oregon now.”
She added that, to respect the family, she was not sharing additional information on their return. “What I will say is that this never should have happened to begin with,” she said.
