Orange Is the New Black fans are in tears over Karla's harrowing ICE storyline

29 July 2019, 16:49

By Sam Prance

Orange Is the New Black viewers can't believe what happens to Karla Cordova in season 7.

Orange Is the New Black season 7 is here and fans are heartbroken by Karla Cordova's (Karina Arroyave) ICE storyline.

Every year Orange Is the New Black introduces us to a brand new set of characters. Last season alone, the show blessed us with Adeola (a comedic legend), Badison (an infuriating inmate) and Carol and Barb (the villainous sister duo of our dreams). Season 7 is no different. Half of the new season is set in an ICE detention centre next to Litchfield Max. Here we meet the likes of Shana and Karla, who are detained alongside fan favourites Blanca and Maritza.

READ MORE: Orange Is the New Black ending: What happens to each character in the main cast?

Viewers immediately fell in love with Karla but they are outraged by what happens to her at the end of the series.

WARNING: HUGE ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK SPOILERS BELOW

Karla's storyline is key to season 7. We first meet her in episode 3 ('And Brown Is the New Orange'). Blanca has been sent to an immigration trial with her fellow detainees to decide whether or not she will be deported. None of the detainees are given legal representation, so it seems likely that Blanca will be deported. Karla speaks before Blanca though. She reads out her rights and requests extra time to seek a lawyer. Blanca does the same and both of them are granted more time.

Blanca and Karla then develop a friendship as they work to research their cases and free themselves from the ICE detention centre. We quickly learn that Blanca is a widower with two young boys who've been put into foster care after ICE separated them from her. Karla is desperate to be with her children again. Karla helps Blanca get her green card and be set free but she is unable to free herself and it's revealed that she will be deported in episode 11 ('God Bless America').

In one of the show's most heartbreaking scenes, we see Karla speak to her boys via phone one last time. The boys ask her when they will see her again. Crying, she tells them: "I will not stop until we're together again." One of her sons asks: "Will you be here for my birthday?" and she says: "If I'm not, I will still be on my way." The boys start sobbing and she says: "I love you both more than anything. Never forget how much I love you."

Later we see Karla, being deported to El Salvador. In the final episode of the series, we see her along with a group of other people trekking to cross the border back to the US. However, it doesn't look like Karla makes it there. We see her trip and break her ankle and the rest of the people leave her behind in the desert. Screaming, we see that she's been left to die. Considering how bleak her story is, it's no wonder fans are angry.

What's worse is that Karla's storyline is far from fiction.

You can help protect immigrant rights and find out more about them via the ACLU website here.