The Children of Dilley : Shared by Tom McDermott

The Children of Dilley 

Mica Rosenberg 

ProPublica 

February 9, 2026 Click here for the article

In an in-depth investigation, ProPublica reporter Mica Rosenberg gained access — as a visitor — to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, run by private prison firm CoreCivic, which has held more than 3,500 detainees since reopening under the Trump administration, more than half of them minors. 

Although a long-standing legal settlement limits children's detention to 20 days, ProPublica's data analysis found approximately 300 children held for more than a month, with some detained for as long as eight months. 

Children described inadequate medical care, poor food quality — including reports of worms and mold — chronic illness, and profound psychological distress, including self-harm and suicidal ideation among some detainees. Many families had been detained not at the border but while attending routine ICE check-in appointments or seeking emergency medical care, after years of lawful residence in the United States.

Forensic psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee, writing in response to the ProPublica findings (A Nation that Incarcerates Children), argues that the targeting of migrant children reflects a broader pattern of dangerous personalities exploiting unchecked institutional power. She situates the Dilley detentions within what she describes as a systemic failure of accountability across American institutions, warning that "unlimited power in the hands of limited people almost guarantees abuse."

"Since I got to this Center all you will feel is sadness and mostly depression." — Ariana Velasquez, 14, detained 45 days at Dilley

"I am in a jail and I am sad and I have fainted 2 times here inside, when I arrived every night I cried." — Maria Antonia Guerra, 9, detained more than 100 days at Dilley

"I feel like I'll never get out of here. I just ask that you don't forget about us." — Gustavo Santiago, 13, detained at Dilley

Additional news follow-up stories

1. ProPublica — Children's Letters (companion piece) "I Have Been Here Too Long": Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE's Dilley Facility https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-dilley-children-letters The original ProPublica investigation's companion piece — actual handwritten letters and drawings from detained children, collected in mid-January. Highly compelling primary source material.

2. NBC News — February 14, 2026 'Even in Russia, they don't treat children like this': A family's nightmare in ICE detention https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russian-family-ice-detention-dilley-texas-nightmare-immigration-rcna258377 A Russian asylum-seeking family held more than 120 days — six times the legal limit — with children reporting worms in food and hours-long waits for medication. Their attorney filed for immediate release on medical grounds.

3. ABC News — February 16, 2026 Children are being kept in immigration custody longer than allowed, advocates say https://www.ksro.com/2026/02/16/children-are-being-kept-in-immigration-custody-longer-than-allowed-advocates-say Includes the account of 1-year-old Amalia, whose nebulizer and medication were confiscated upon return to Dilley after hospitalization. Lawyers confirm systematic violation of the 20-day limit.

4. Texas Tribune — January 24, 2026 Detained immigrant families protest inside Texas facility https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/24/immigration-facility-protest-texas-liam-conejo-ramos/ Covers the protest triggered by the detention of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos from Minnesota, with families chanting "Libertad para los niños" inside the fence. Good contextual piece on the Flores Settlement Agreement protections the Trump administration is seeking to end.