Lea esta historia en español: ICE detiene a una familia que buscaba atención médica de emergencia para su hija en un hospital de Portland Federal immigration agents arrested and detained a Gresham family, including a 7-year-old child, outside a Portland hospital last week as the girl’s parents sought emergency medical care for her.The arrest at Adventist Health hospital Jan. 16 took place less than 1,000 feet from the medical office parking lot where a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a couple from Venezuela two weeks ago. It appears to be the first time in Oregon that Trump administration immigration authorities have detained an entire family unit, and is one of a few rare cases of immigrants being detained while seeking medical care. Until last year, when President Donald Trump rescinded Obama-era protections for immigrants, hospitals, schools and churches were deemed off limits for immigration enforcement.“No one should live in fear of being detained while getting medical care for their child,” said U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Democrat who represents Oregon’s 3rd District.On Friday, the Oregon Nurses Association echoed those comments, calling the family’s arrest in front of the hospital “alarming, chilling, and deeply shameful.”The family’s detention was first reported by Antonio Sánchez of the Spanish-language news outlet Noticias Noroeste. It happened around dawn last Friday when 40-year-old Yohendry De Jesus Crespo and his wife, 34-year-old Darianny Liseth Gonzalez de Crespo, took their daughter to Adventist Health’s emergency department in Southeast Portland. Diana, 7, had a nosebleed that just wouldn’t stop and her parents, immigrants from Venezuela with a pending asylum petition, were increasingly worried about her health.They never got to see a doctor.Three unmarked cars with immigration agents surrounded their car in the ER parking lot, said Ana Linares, a close family friend whose husband talked with the parents after their arrest. A spokesperson for Adventist Health Portland said the arrest came as a complete surprise to the hospital. “No law enforcement agency contacted us, and we did not coordinate with any agency,” Heather Pease, the spokesperson, said. “Adventist Health Portland is here for our community, open, available, and ready to provide care when it’s needed most. Patient care remains our priority, regardless of circumstances.” Agents detained the parents and their daughter, drove them to the immigration detention center in Tacoma, then flew them to Texas, Linares said.It’s unclear why the parents and their child, who was born in Ecuador, were detained. A review of court records by The Oregonian/OregonLive turns up no criminal history in Oregon or in Utah where they previously lived. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests for comment. The ICE detainee locator system shows the family is being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center near San Antonio, Texas (also known as South Texas Family Residential Center) – the country’s largest family detention center. Linares said the parents – known to their friends as Joey and Dari – and their daughter entered the U.S. via San Ysidro, California in November 2024, along with Linares, her husband, children and mother-in-law who also hail from Venezuela. The two families had met in the Panamanian jungle as they were both heading to the U.S. overland, she said. Together they crossed Panama and the rest of Central America by foot and bus, eventually spending a month in Mexico while awaiting their turn to enter the U.S. legally, Linares said. Both families applied for an appointment via a U.S. Customs and Border Protection mobile app, Linares said, requesting permission to present themselves at a port of entry – a pathway for asylum seekers to enter the country before Trump took office last year. The two families entered the U.S. on the same day, Linares said, and both received a 2028 immigration court date that would eventually allow them to plead their asylum cases. The Crespo-Gonzalez family spent their first year in Utah while the Linares family settled in Portland. But after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed in October in Utah, triggering a large law‑enforcement mobilization in the state, they decided to move to Oregon. The couple and their child joined Linares and her family in Portland in late October, sharing Linares’ apartment until they rented their own two months later, she said. Last Friday, Linares became worried when she couldn’t reach her friends. She and her husband drove to their apartment and, finding it empty, checked ICE’s online detainee locator system and found the couple and their child at the Texas detention facility. She still can’t reconcile what happened to her friends. Both parents have university degrees, Linares said. They’re respectful and like to help others, she said. “They are good people, not criminals,” Linares said. “They were looking for stability. They wanted to help their families in Venezuela.” Linares is most concerned about the child. Her father told the family this week that the girl had a fever over the weekend and a doctor at the detention facility didn’t attend to her until Wednesday. Multiple reports and lawsuits have documented children being denied adequate medical care while in ICE custody, including at the family detention center in Dilley.A recent news report shows ICE is currently detaining more than 70,000 people nationwide, including at least 6,000 “family units” – parents and underage children taken into custody as families. Oregon legislators said they’re monitoring the family’s case and called on federal agencies to protect the child’s health and safety and respect due process. “The immediate health and wellbeing of this child must be the top priority,” state Rep. Ricki Ruiz, a Democrat from Gresham, told The Oregonian/OregonLive via a written statement. “We urgently call for the child to receive appropriate medical care without delay and for the family to be afforded due process and access to legal counsel.” Judge orders immediate release of Albany mom arrested after buying socks for son‘We do not live in an authoritarian regime:’ Plan to ID, unmask federal agents remains aliveMayor asks Portland councilor to drop plan to ID and unmask federal agents. Here’s why