Well, here's a double whammy of saddening and maddening. This past Sunday, Maria Sanchez, 26, died in her Houston home from the effects of an inoperable spinal tumor. Just four days earlier U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied a humanitarian parole to her parents, so they were unable to see their daughter on her death bed. The agency said humanitarian parole was an extraordinary measure granted only for a "very compelling emergency."


I guess saying goodbye to your child isn't a very compelling emergency in the eyes of the U.S. government? Disgusting.

Apparently this wasn't the first time Sanchez suffered at the hands of "undocumented citizenship":

Almost two years ago, the University of Texas Medical Branch ejected her from the hospital shortly before a scheduled surgery after discovering she was in the country illegally. Written on her discharge paper was the suggestion that she seek surgery in Mexico. The hospital at the time said federal privacy laws precluded comment on a specific case.


Awful.

Sanchez's husband will send his wife's body to Mexico for burial.

[Houston Chronicle]