A Burnsville woman could die if she’s not released from immigration detention for medical care, her lawyer warned on Monday.
Andrea Pedro-Francisco, 23, is originally from Guatemala and has lived with her family in Burnsville since 2019. She was arrested by immigration agents on her way to work in early February and sent to a detention center in El Paso, Texas, just days before she was scheduled for surgery to remove a large ovarian cyst.
At a press conference in Burnsville, Asra Syed said her client’s pain was so great that Pedro-Francisco’s doctor prescribed her an opioid before she was arrested. Syed said in detention Pedro-Francisco was given Tylenol as her cyst grew to the size of a tennis ball.
Syed said her client’s doctors “warn that the cyst is at risk of rupturing or cutting off her blood supply, conditions that can cause fatal internal bleeding, infection or the loss of her ovary.”
Syed said over a video call with Pedro-Francisco in February, Pedro Francisco said her pain was so excruciating that she was taken to the emergency room. A doctor agreed she needed surgery, but wouldn’t perform it while she was in detention.
“Andrea also told me that since that event, the pain in her body was growing, stretching across her abdomen and back, so severe she couldn't sleep through it. At times, she was experiencing hot flashes, at other times, shivers, and also waves of faintness so extreme she feared falling,” Syed told reporters.
The health research organization KFF analyzed federal data on deaths in immigration detention and found since President Donald Trump resumed the presidency in January, 2025, more than 40 people have died in ICE custody. The analysis also showed that the number of deaths in 2025 “exceeded the highest seen in over two decades, and deaths in 2026 are on track to meet or exceed that number.”
U.S. Rep. Angie Craig represents Burnsville and spoke about Pedro-Francisco’s case alongside the woman’s attorney.
“For over a month, my office has been going back and forth with ICE officials about Andrea's condition,” Craig said Monday. “We have been ignored, put off, and frankly, lied to about the treatment she has received while in detention.”
Craig added that Pedro-Francisco is just one of about 20 of her constituents she is aware of who are currently in immigration detention and one of five severe medical cases. “It’s now only four because of the individual who had to self deport in order to get the dialysis that he needed,” Craig said.
In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Pedro-Francisco was taken to the emergency room during her detention and said “she has been seen by medical staff on-site seven times” and provided “pain medication.”
The statement also read: “ICE maintains longstanding practices to provide comprehensive medical care, including access to vaccines, medical, dental, and mental health services, as well as medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. This is the best health care that many individuals have received in their lives.”
DHS did not respond to questions asking whether Pedro-Francisco would be released or how the agency determines if a detainee should be released for emergency medical care.
On April 2, U.S. District Judge Leon Schydlower denied the habeas corpus petition Syed filed on Pedro-Francisco’s behalf asking for her release.
When Syed spoke to her client over video in February, Pedro-Francisco said she missed singing in her local church and missed her family. “She cried when talking about being in detention for one of their birthdays,” Syed said.
Syed said the only option left is asking ICE to release Pedro-Francisco on humanitarian grounds. Amnesty International has organized a letter-writing campaign on Pedro-Francisco’s behalf.
SAS is also known as “Statistical analytical software” – popular data analytical software. The main purpose of this SAS software is to alter, manage, retrieve, and mine from multiple data sources. The basic functionalities of SAS included are managing the data, statistical analysis purpose, developing the applications, and data warehousing. The SAS technology consists of a point and click user interface mainly for non-programmers and also used to perform more advanced options through SAS programming language. In the SAS tool, data will be extracted from multiple sources to analyze and identify the data patterns.
Let’s start with SAS programming concepts.
Fundamental concepts of SAS programming:
The following are the important windows used in SAS programming:
SAS windows:
These SAS windows are mainly used by large business enterprises and training institutes. The main aim to use this SAS window is that due it includes a lot of essential utilities that reduce the time required to write the SAS codes.
The following diagram explains the overview of SAS windows;
1. Log window:
This is a type of execution window. With the help of this window type, you can check the condition of your program execution. You can view errors, notifications, and warnings related to program execution in this windows type.
2. Code window:
This type of window is also called an editor window. You should use them as a blank paper, and notepad, where you can write your SAS programming code.
3. Output window:
As the name tells, this type of window is used to display the output of the given program or program code. In this window, you should write your code in the editor.
4. Result window:
This window is a type of index that consists of output lists of programs that help to run them in one session. It also holds the particular session results, if you once close the software, then you have to restart it. The resulting window in SAS window type will be empty.
5. Explore Window:
This window type consists of lists of all the libraries and packages in the system. With the help of this window type, you need to browse the system that includes supported file types.
One more important point to be remembered, a few business enterprises use the LINUX operating system. This type of OS will not support the graphical user interface to write your SAS program code and it’s very inconvenient to use.
SAS data sets:
SAS data sets are also known as data files. However, data files consist of rows and columns, where rows include observations and columns include variable names.
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SAS variables:
SAS consists of two types of variables:
1. Numeric variables:
This is the default type of variable. These variables are mainly used in mathematical expressions.
2. Character variables:
Character variables hold values that are not used in mathematical expressions. They are used as text or strings. A character variable can be expressed by using the symbol “$” at the end of the variable name.
SAS libraries:
SAS library is a list of SAS files that can be stored in the same folder or any directory on your computer devices.
There are two types of SAS libraries available such as;
1. Temporary library: In this type of library, the data sets will be deleted when your SAS session ends.
2. Permanent library: In this type of library, data sets will be saved permanently; henceforth they are available across the SAS sessions.
With the help of this library, the user can also define or generate a new library type called a user-defined library by using the keyword “LIBNAME”.
SAS programming and SAS code structure:
When you begin SAS programming, you should know two building blocks;
They are;
1. DATA step: This DATA step creates the SAS program data sets and then transmits them into the PROC step.
2. PROC step: This type of SAS step processes the data sets.
Important rules to be followed when you begin with the SAS program;
a. Every code in the SAS program should begin with either DATA or PROC step.
b. Every line of the SAS program code should end with a semicolon.
c. A SAS programming code should end with these keywords “RUN” or “QUIT”.
d. SAS programming codes are not always case sensitive.
e. You can write the codes across multiple lines or multiple statements in a single line.
Program example:
DATA Employee_Info;
Input Emp_ID Emp_Name$ Emp_Vertical$;
datalines;
201 Mark SQL
202 John SAS
203 Adam JAVA
;
RUN;
Informats and Formats in SAS:
As I said earlier SAS uses two types of variables;
They are;
1. Numeric
2. Character
When your SAS program consists of non-standard variables, then SAS will throw the errors or you will not get the desired output. To overcome this type of hustle SAS makes use of Formats and Informats.
Informat:
The main purpose of using these Informats is to read or read the input data types available from external files or flat files (you can also know them as a text file or sequential file). This type of SAS informat informs SAS software on how to read/ write the data into SAS variables. SAS program consists of three types of informats: character, date or time, and numeric. The following are the syntax structure of informats:
a. Character informat: “$INFORMATw”.
b. Numeric informat: “INFORMATw.d”.
c. Date or time informat: “INFORMATw”.
Here the “$” defines the character format and “w” indicates the variable width. And the “d” used to indicate the numeric data.
Formats:
Informats in SAS are used as an instruction to read the data, whereas the formats are also a type of instruction to display the output data. Here formats are used into three classes informats (for example character, numeric, and date/time formats) and also hold dot values.
The syntax used to format the statement is as follows;
FORMAT variable-name FORMAT-NAME;
SAS Loops:
While working with SAS programming, in some cases, you may get a situation where we need to execute the block of statements several times. You will get an error when you execute the same statements again and again. In SAS programming, the DO statements are used to implement the loops. This is also known as the “Do loop”. The image shows the loop statements execution;
There are three types of Do loops used in SAS programming;
1. Index: in this case of do, the loop will begin from the start value until the stop value of the condition given index variable at the end of the program.
2. While: the loop conditional statement continues until the while condition becomes false, then the loop will be terminated.
3. Until: the loop continues till the Until condition becomes true and the program will be executed successfully.
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Basic statistical procedures used in SAS:
The following are vital statistical procedures used in SAS;
1. PROC MEANS:
This type of basic statistical procedure is mainly used to calculate any arithmetic mean and standard deviation while working with SAS operators. It may be difficult for those who are new to statistical analytics. So before you start coding, you should make use of this basic procedure.
2. Arithmetic mean:
This is nothing but the sum of the value of any numeric variables, which are divided by the number of variables that give you the Arithmetic mean. It is also called mean and also measures the central tendency. A measure of central tendency is nothing but a single value that defines the set of data to identify the central position of the data sets.
3. Mean of a Data sets:
If you want to supply only data sets without using any variables, first you should calculate the mean of all the given variables at the data set.
4. Mean of selected variables:
Here you need to supply the names to the variables by using the Var option, and then you will get the mean of the selected variables.
5. Mean by class:
With the help of this, you need to find the mean of the numeric variables by grouping them. Here the grouping can be done by using some parameters. For example, parameters like “make” and “type” can be used to group them.
6. Standard deviation:
Standard deviation is a measure used to verify the given data set. For example, if the value of standard deviation is “0”, it means that data points are very close to the mean of the data set.
The below are the two methods used to calculate the standard deviation value;
1. PROC MEANS
2. SURVEYMEANS
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Conclusion:
In this SAS programming blog, you will be learning what are all the various approaches used to execute the SAS codes. SAS software includes various advanced level customized components to help while working with business enterprise applications. We have tried to explain basic to advanced level concepts to become a good SAS programmer. One more advantage of the SAS tool is that even non-programmer with basic SQL knowledge can also access this software tool.
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