ICE denied humanitarian parole to 79-year-old dementia patient, holding her at Eloy nine months
An Arizona Daily Star investigation published February 15, 2026 found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has largely stopped exercising discretion to release medically vulnerable detainees on humanitarian parole, instead issuing what immigration attorneys describe as blanket denials. The investigation centered on Julia Benitez, a 79-year-old Cuban asylum seeker with dementia who uses a wheelchair, whom ICE held at Eloy Detention Center in Arizona for nine months despite her family's repeated parole requests and her rapidly deteriorating mental condition. Detentions of people 65 and older rose 150% in the first five months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to a Lee Enterprises analysis of ICE detention data.