Nory and her mother were deported together. Then she was orphaned. (The 19th News)

Estela’s death at 45 followed her rapid deportation, leaving her teenage daughter to navigate a new life in Guatemala on her own — afraid of the same gang violence her mother originally fled.

By Nadra Nittle, October 27, 2025

Two days before Estela Ramos Baten was detained during a mandatory immigration check-in, she turned 45. It would be her last birthday.

The mother-of-seven’s health was already fragile when she and her teenage daughter, Nory Sontay Ramos, were deported to their native Guatemala on July 4 — as The 19th reported first. Ramos Baten’s arms ached after years of labor as a seamstress, but as persistent as that pain was, it hadn’t devastated her body like her inflamed liver and high blood pressure. She was in such physical torment that she could no longer work.

Then, her abrupt removal from Los Angeles, where she had lived since 2016 after fleeing gang violence in her homeland, deprived her of medical treatment, her relatives said. Nine weeks later, Ramos Baten died on September 8 from complications of liver cirrhosis after complaining she felt ill that day. 

To immigration advocates, her death was not an isolated event but the end result of policy shifts that have sown terror and chaos in immigrant communities since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Trump pledged to target immigrants with criminal records, but his reach has been far wider. Women who lack permanent legal status, like Ramos Baten — asylum seekers, mothers and longtime residents — are now casualties. Her demise leaves her teenage daughter, due to start her senior year in high school before deportation, orphaned in a country she hasn’t lived in since early childhood. 

Read the full story at The 19th News.