Asylum-seeker with brain tumor in NYC for treatment

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS/AP) - A Salvadoran woman seeking asylum in the United States arrived in New York Friday evening to have treatment for a brain tumor.

An immigration judge on Thursday granted Sara Beltran Hernandez, 26, release from the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas. Her family in New York posted the $15,000 bond after the hearing, triggering her release.

She told Fox 5 News that she can't believe she has been reunited with her family. She said hasn't seen her mother in years.

Beltran Hernandez said she fled El Salvador because of domestic violence and threats of gang violence against her family. In 2015, she entered the United States illegally. Immigration agents later detained her. Beltran Hernandez sought asylum in the U.S. for almost a year and a half, but she was set to be deported.

Her lawyers said that Beltran Hernandez collapsed at the detention center on February 10. Agents took her to a local hospital, where doctors diagnosed the brain tumor.

A neurosurgeon who examined her on Monday said her tumor is benign. However, she still needs to continue medical treatment.

Esmeralda, Beltran Hernandez's mother, says she will fight and do anything and everything to keep her daughter with her in the United States. She hopes a judge will grant her asylum.

With the Associated Press