In a lawyer’s office in downtown Los Angeles, a little girl sits at a desk made for adults – tiny trainers dangling off the edge of a swivel chair.
She’s surrounded by dozens of TV cameras but has no understanding of why she’s suddenly the centre of attention.
Sofia, whose real name we are not using, is a gravely ill four-year-old caught in the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s sweeping and often indiscriminate immigration policy.
The White House has ordered she leaves the US immediately, but Sofia’s doctors at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles say that – if she is sent back to her home country of Mexico and her treatment stops – she could die within days.
As Sofia places rainbow stickers carefully in a book and plays snap, the lawyers fighting for her to remain in the US speak at a podium on her behalf.
“We’re sending them to die,” Gina Amato Lough, a lawyer for the pro bono firm Public Counsel, says.
“That’s not justice and it doesn’t make us any safer. We cannot let our country turn its back on this child.”
Sofia wears a backpack for 14 hours at night and four hours during the day which keeps her alive – containing nutrients she can’t absorb naturally.
It is cutting-edge healthcare only available in the US.
She was born with short bowel syndrome, a debilitating and life-threatening condition that meant she spent most of the first two years of her life in hospital.
Under the Biden administration, Sofia and her mother Deysi entered the US legally in July 2023 – granted humanitarian parole to access medical care for two years.
But in April – three months into Donald Trump’s presidency – the 28-year-old received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, informing her that the family’s right to stay in the country was being revoked.
“It is time to leave the United States,” the first line of the letter reads.
“Even before getting the letters, I would hear in the news how many people are being deported, even with humanitarian paroles, and I worried a lot,” Deysi says.
“I was always walking down the street looking over my shoulder, there is so much fear and so much anxiety, it’s very hard.
“It’s always in my mind that my daughter can die. It may not sound real, but it is really what will happen if my daughter is not connected to her treatment.”
Sofia’s lawyers warn that if there is an interruption to her treatment, her doctors say it could be “fatal within days”.
The lawyers have written to officials within the Trump administration, but say they haven’t heard back yet.
“It seems as if nobody noticed that this child is four years old and that she will die without her treatment,” Ms Lough says.
“And not only have they not responded, but they have continued sending notices to the family verifying that their status has been cancelled and that they are required to leave the United States immediately.
“Sofia’s doctors have been clear that she will die within days. Deporting this family under these conditions is not only unlawful, it constitutes a moral failure that violates the basic tenets of humanity and decency.”
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In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said: “Any reporting that [the family] are actively being deported are FALSE. This family applied for humanitarian parole on May 14, 2025, and the application is still being considered.”
When approached by Sky News, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan denied specific knowledge of Sofia’s case, but said he would instruct the White House press office to “look into” the circumstances.
For now, Sofia is a tiny symbol of the human casualties of often unbending and ruthless immigration policy.
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