CNN – Immigrant families held at a detention facility in Texas describe prolonged stays, despondent children, limited access to potable water and agents offering money for families to voluntarily leave the country, according to new court declarations filed early Tuesday morning.
The filings paint a portrait of the inside of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility where, as of November, there were around 160 families who had either crossed the US-Mexico border or been picked up by authorities in the United States as part of the administration’s sweeping crackdown.
ICE detention facilities are like handcuffs … they’re not designed for comfort. – HEADLINE HEALTH
Administration officials have boasted of thousands of arrests since President Donald Trump took office, often categorizing those targeted as public safety and national security threats. But among those taken into custody, at places like ICE check ins and vehicle checkpoints, are families who are undocumented.
Family detention, which expanded under former President Barack Obama, had been paused under the Biden administration before resuming this year.
The Dilley facility – intended to be a residential detention center, not a criminal facility – is designed to house families, with a series of beige trailers with dedicated spaces for a library, gym and classroom. Children at Dilley range from infants to teenagers.
‘It’s a prison here’
Editor’s note: If detainees are being offered money to voluntarily leave, ICE facilities have virtually nothing in common with prisons. Donald Trump has already explained the policy, which every detainee chose to ignore prior to being detained: ‘get these people the hell out of our country.’– HEADLINE HEALTH
But immigrant advocates and attorneys have routinely raised alarm over detaining children.
“When we were at Dilley a few weeks ago, conditions of confinement and treatment of families appear to have worsened with families reporting horrific concerns, such as denial of critical medical care, worms and mold in the food that result in children becoming ill, and threats of family separation by officers and staff,” said Leecia Welch, deputy litigation director at Children’s Rights, who has been to Dilley six times this year …
