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Fourteen-year-old Ariana Velasquez had been held on the immigrant detention middle in Dilley, Texas, along with her mom for some 45 days once I managed to get inside to satisfy her. The employees introduced everybody within the visiting room a boxed lunch from the cafeteria: a cup of yellowish stew and a hamburger patty in a plain bun. Ariana’s lengthy black curls hung loosely round her face and he or she was carrying a government-issued grey sweatsuit. At first, she sat trying blankly down on the desk. She poked at her meals with a plastic fork and let her mom do most of the speaking.
She perked up once I requested about residence: Hicksville, New York. She and her mom had moved there from Honduras when she was 7. Her mom, Stephanie Valladares, had utilized for asylum, married a neighbor from again residence who was already dwelling within the U.S., and had two extra youngsters. Ariana took care of them after college. She was a freshman at Hicksville High, and being detained on the Dilley Immigration Processing Center meant that she was falling behind in her courses. She informed me how a lot she missed her favourite signal language trainer, however most of all she missed her siblings.
I had beforehand met them in Hicksville: Gianna, a toddler who everybody calls Gigi, and Jacob, a kindergartener with broad brown eyes. I informed Ariana that they missed her too. Jacob had proven me a safety digicam that their mother had put in within the kitchen so she may peek in on them from her job, typically saying “Hello” via the speaker. I informed Ariana that Jacob tried speaking to the digicam, hoping his mother would reply.
Stephanie burst into tears. So did Ariana. After my go to, Ariana wrote me a letter.
“My younger siblings haven’t been able to see their mom in more than a month,” she wrote. “They are very young and you need both of your parents when you are growing up.” Then, referring to Dilley, she added, “Since I got to this Center all you will feel is sadness and mostly depression.”
Dilley, run by non-public jail agency CoreCivic, is positioned some 72 miles south of San Antonio and almost 2,000 miles away from Ariana’s residence. It is a sprawling assortment of trailers and dormitories, virtually the identical colour because the dusty panorama, surrounded by a tall fence. It first opened in the course of the Obama administration to carry an inflow of households crossing the border. Former President Joe Biden stopped holding households there in 2021, arguing America shouldn’t be within the enterprise of detaining children.
But rapidly after returning to workplace, President Donald Trump resumed family detentions as half of his mass deportation marketing campaign. Federal courts and overwhelming public outrage had put an finish to Trump’s first-term coverage of separating children from parents when immigrant families were detained crossing the border. Trump officers mentioned Dilley was a spot the place immigrant households can be detained collectively.
As the second Trump administration’s crackdown each slowed border crossings to report lows and ramped up a blitz of immigration arrests all throughout the nation, the inhabitants inside Dilley shifted. The administration started sending dad and mom and children who had been dwelling within the nation lengthy sufficient to put down roots and to construct networks of kin, buddies and supporters keen to talk up in opposition to their detention.
If the administration believed that placing children in Dilley wouldn’t stir the identical outcry as separating them from their dad and mom, it was mistaken. The picture of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos from Ecuador, who was detained together with his father in Minneapolis whereas carrying a Spider-Man backpack and a blue bunny hat, went viral on social media and triggered widespread condemnation and a protest by the detainees.
Weeks earlier than that, I had begun talking to folks and children at Dilley, together with their kin on the surface. I additionally spoke to individuals who labored inside the middle or visited it commonly to provide non secular or authorized companies. I had requested Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for permission to go to however obtained a variety of responses. One spokesperson denied my request, one other mentioned he doubted I may get formal approval and recommended I may strive displaying up there as a customer. So I did.
Since early December, I’ve spoken, in individual and by way of cellphone and video calls, to greater than two dozen detainees, half of them youngsters detained at Dilley — all of whose dad and mom gave me their’ consent. I requested dad and mom whether or not their children would be open to writing to me about their experiences. More than three dozen youngsters responded; some simply drew photos, others wrote in excellent cursive. Some letters had been full of age-appropriate misspellings.
Among them was a letter from a 9-year-old Venezuelan woman, named Susej Fernández, who had been dwelling in Houston when she and her mom had been detained. “I have been 50 days in Dilley Immigration Processing Center,” she wrote. “Seen how people like me, immigrants are been treated changes my perspective about the U.S. My mom and I came to The U.S looking for a good and safe place to live.”
A 14-year-old Colombian woman, who signed her identify Gaby M.M. and who a fellow detainee mentioned had been dwelling in Houston, wrote a letter about how the guards at Dilley “have bad manner of speaking to residents.” She wrote, “The workers treat the residents unhumanly, verbally and I don’t want to imging how they would act if they where unsupervised.”
Nine-year-old Maria Antonia Guerra, from Colombia, drew a portrait of herself and her mom carrying their detainee ID badges. A observe on the aspect mentioned, “I am not happy, please get me out of here.”
Some of the children I met spoke English in addition to they did Spanish.
When I requested the children to inform me concerning the issues they missed most from their lives outdoors Dilley, they virtually all the time talked about their lecturers and buddies at college. Then they’d get to issues like lacking a beloved canine, McDonald’s Happy Meals, their favourite stuffed animal or a pair of new UGGs that had been ready for them beneath the Christmas tree.
They informed me they feared what would possibly occur to them in the event that they returned to their residence nations and what would possibly occur to them in the event that they remained right here. Thirteen-year-old Gustavo Santiago mentioned he didn’t wish to return to Tamaulipas, Mexico. “I have friends, school, and family here in the United States,” he mentioned of his residence in San Antonio, Texas. “To this day, I don’t know what we did wrong to be detained.” He ended with a plea, “I feel like I’ll never get out of here. I just ask that you don’t forget about us.”
Around 3,500 detainees, greater than half of them minors, have cycled via the middle because it reopened, greater than the inhabitants of the city of Dilley itself. Although a long-standing authorized settlement usually limits the time children might be held in detention to twenty days, an information evaluation by ProPublica discovered that about 300 youngsters despatched to Dilley by the Trump administration had been there for greater than a month. The administration in authorized filings has mentioned the settlement from 1997 is outdated and must be terminated as a result of there are new statutes, rules and insurance policies that guarantee good circumstances for immigrant minors in detention.
Habiba Soliman, 18, informed me she had been detained for greater than eight months along with her mother and 4 siblings, ranging in age from 16 to 5-year-old twins, after her father was charged for an alleged antisemitic assault in June at rally in Boulder, Colorado, supporting the Jewish hostages who had been being held in Gaza. Their father, Mohamed Soliman, pleaded not responsible to federal and state expenses. Authorities have said they are investigating whether or not his spouse and her children supplied help for the assault. They deny figuring out something about it and an arrest warrant reviews that he informed an officer he never talked to his wife or family about his plans.
Despite Trump’s promise to go after violent criminals, the overwhelming majority of adults detained at Dilley during the last 12 months had no legal report within the United States. Some of the dad and mom I spoke to had overstayed visas. Many had filed functions for asylum, had married U.S. residents or had been granted humanitarian parole and had been detained once they voluntarily confirmed up for appointments at ICE workplaces. They mentioned that it was unfair to arrest them, and that detaining their children was simply plain merciless.
There had been children in Dilley who had been so distraught they minimize themselves or talked about suicide, a number of moms informed me. Recently, two cases of measles were discovered within the middle. Federal officers mentioned they quarantined some immigrants, and attorneys mentioned ICE cancelled in-person authorized visits till Feb. 14 as a security precaution.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, mentioned in an announcement that each one detainees at Dilley are “being provided with proper medical care.” DHS didn’t reply to questions on particular person detainees however mentioned that each one “are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries” and that “certified dieticians evaluate meals.” Detained dad and mom are given the choice for his or her households to be deported collectively, or they will have their children positioned with one other caregiver, the assertion mentioned.
CoreCivic mentioned that Dilley, like its different amenities, is topic to a number of layers of oversight to make sure full compliance with insurance policies and procedures, together with any relevant detention requirements.
Moms informed me that their youngsters had misplaced their appetites after discovering worms and mildew on their meals, had bother sleeping on the ability’s onerous metallic bunk beds in rooms shared by not less than a dozen different folks, and had been consistently sick.
“The shock for my daughter was devastating,” Maria Alejandra Montoya from Colombia wrote in an e-mail to me about her daughter Maria Antonia. “Watching her adapt is like watching her wings being clipped. Hearing other children fight over card games at the tables makes me feel like we are not mothers and children, but inmates.”
Alexander Perez, a 15-year-old from the Dominican Republic, informed me about going to highschool at Dilley. He mentioned courses included youngsters from combined age teams, and every class allowed solely 12 college students and lasted for only one hour. Slots had been assigned on a first-come-first-served foundation. Children would line up, hoping to get in. The employees main the category would distribute handouts and worksheets to those that made it inside.
Alexander Perez complained that the teachings had been normally meant for teenagers who had been youthful than him, so he discovered them boring. But as a result of there wasn’t a lot else to do, he used to go every time he may, till an teacher turned a social research lesson into what felt like an interrogation about immigration coverage.
“If we have recreational activities and classes designed to help us disconnect from what we’re experiencing here, why the need to ask ourselves these questions?” he mentioned throughout a video name with me. “I didn’t think that was right.”
He, his mom and his 14-year-old brother, Jorge, mentioned they’d been detained whereas touring from Los Angeles to Houston when the bus they had been on was stopped by immigration brokers who checked everybody’s standing. They’d been in Dilley for 4 months by the point we spoke. His mom, Teresa, informed me she was within the course of of interesting a decide’s denial of her asylum petition, which could clarify why it was a sensitive topic for Alexander when it got here up in school. He informed me that after he gave up on attending courses at Dilley, he performed basketball within the recreation space and watched so much of Spanish cleaning soap operas on TV. Jorge, who celebrated his birthday in December at Dilley with a tiny cake constructed from vanilla commissary cookies, spent most of the day sleeping.
DHS mentioned in its assertion that “children have access to teachers, classrooms, and curriculum booklets for math, reading, and spelling.”
Boredom was a theme that ran via many of the letters from children at Dilley. “They told me I could only be here 21 days but I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repeated meals,” wrote a 12-year-old Venezuelan woman who signed her letter Ender, and who a fellow detainee mentioned had settled along with her mom in Austin, Texas. She wrote that when she felt sick and went to the physician, “the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here.”
Ariana expressed comparable considerations in her letter. She wrote, “If you need medical attention the longest you have to wait is 3 hours, but to get any medicine, pill, anything it takes a while, there are various viruses people are always sick. Serious situations happen and the officers can’t take them serious enough there are no consecuenses, they don’t care.”
The lack of dependable medical care was maybe essentially the most critical concern dad and mom and children spoke about of their interviews with me. The Texas-based nonprofit advocacy group RAICES, which offers authorized illustration to many households at Dilley, mentioned in a latest courtroom declaration that its purchasers had raised considerations about inadequate medical care on not less than 700 events since August 2025. The group reported, “Children with medical complaints frequently experience delays, dismissals, or lack of follow-up.”
Kheilin Valero from Venezuela, who was being held along with her 18-month-old, Amalia Arrieta, mentioned shortly after they had been detained following an ICE appointment on Dec. 11 in El Paso, Texas, the infant fell unwell. For two weeks, she mentioned, medical employees gave her ibuprofen and finally antibiotics, however Amalia’s respiratory worsened to the purpose that she was hospitalized in San Antonio for 10 days. She was identified with COVID-19 and RSV. “Because she went so many days without treatment, and because it’s so cold here, she developed pneumonia and bronchitis,” Kheilin mentioned. “She was malnourished, too, because she was vomiting everything.”
Gustavo Santiago, the 13-year-old boy who’d been dwelling in Texas, mentioned he has been sick a number of instances since he and his mother had been detained on Oct. 5 of final 12 months at a Border Patrol checkpoint. His mother, Christian Hinojosa, mentioned that when Gustavo had a fever, the medical employees informed her he was sufficiently old for his physique to struggle it off with out remedy, so she sat up with him all evening, draping him in chilly compresses. She needed to take him to the infirmary for a pores and skin rash that she believed was attributable to poor water high quality on the middle. She mentioned he has additionally skilled abdomen ache and nausea, which she blamed on unsanitary meals preparation.
Among logs we obtained of calls made to 911 and regulation enforcement concerning the facility because it started accepting households once more final spring, I discovered pleas for assist for toddlers having bother respiratory, a pregnant lady who handed out and an elementary-school-aged woman having seizures. Local authorities had been additionally referred to as in for 3 circumstances of alleged sexual assault between detainees.
DHS mentioned in its assertion, “No one is denied medical care.”
CoreCivic mentioned that well being and security is a prime precedence for the corporate and that detainees at Dilley are supplied with a continuum of well being care companies, together with preventative care and psychological well being companies. The firm mentioned its medical employees “meet the highest standards of care” and mentioned the ability works carefully with native hospitals for any specialised medical wants.
Ariana and her mom, Stephanie, had been detained on Dec. 1, once they went for one of their common check-ins at an ICE workplace in New York City’s Federal Plaza, that are required as they look ahead to a call on their asylum case. Stephanie had come to the U.S. with expertise working as an accountant and, after securing her work allow, she had lastly discovered a job at an area import enterprise the place she may put that have to make use of. They had been commonly checking in with ICE for years with out incident. But after mother and daughter confirmed up for his or her 8 a.m. ICE appointment, they had been informed they couldn’t depart this time and had been on a airplane to Dilley by 6 that night, with out being given an opportunity to name their household. “Since the day my mom and I get detained in Manhattan NY, my life was instanly paused,” Ariana wrote in her letter from detention after our assembly. “All kids are being damage mentally, they witness how the’ve been treated.”
A 7-year-old Venezuelan woman named Diana Crespo was dwelling in Portland, Oregon, when she and her dad and mom, Darianny Gonzalez and Yohendry Crespo, had been detained outdoors a hospital the place they’d taken Diana for emergency care. The household had been granted humanitarian parole after coming into the United States in 2024 after which utilized for asylum when Trump revoked the parole program, saying that Biden had used it to permit immigrants to pour into the nation at report ranges. She mentioned their lively asylum case didn’t cease the immigration brokers who intercepted them outdoors the emergency room from detaining them.
Maria Antonia Guerra, the 9-year-old from Colombia, informed me that the 10-day trip to Disney World that she had deliberate along with her mom and stepdad was greater than 100 days at Dilley. She’d flown into Florida from Medellin, Colombia, the place she lived along with her grandmother, with a Cruella de Vil costume in her suitcase. Her mom, Maria Alejandra Montoya, was dwelling in New York and had overstayed her visa, however had since married a U.S. citizen and was simply ready for her inexperienced card to be authorized. Maria Antonia traveled commonly forwards and backwards to the U.S. on a vacationer visa, and Maria Alejandra had flown down to satisfy her on the airport. Immigration brokers intercepted them and flew them to Texas. They each informed me that it felt like a kidnapping.
“I am in a jail and I am sad and I have fainted 2 times here inside, when I arrived every night I cried and now I don’t sleep well,” Maria Antonia, who wears thick glasses, wrote to me. “I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family.”
In January, shortly after my go to to Dilley, ICE launched some 200 folks , with out rationalization. Among them had been Ariana and her mother.
The releases got here as such a shock that Stephanie mentioned one other lady started screaming and refused to let go of her bunk, fearing she was about to be deported again to Ecuador. Stephanie was fitted with an ankle monitor, and he or she and Ariana had been dropped off in Laredo, Texas, the place they scrambled to purchase a airplane ticket to LaGuardia in New York.
On Jan. 22, two days after her launch, I met Stephanie once more, this time holding Gigi as she confirmed up for her first ICE test in at an workplace close to her residence. She had been so nervous that she obtained misplaced on the best way to the appointment. She was given a collection of directions and proven movies that defined the aim and cadence of her common check-ins. She’d have one each month on the workplace, and each two months she can be visited at her residence.
Jacob had initially refused to go to highschool as a result of he was afraid his mom and sister wouldn’t be there when he got here residence, however she’d lastly gotten him to go by promising each morning that she’s not leaving once more.
Ariana went again to highschool a number of days later. Her English trainer instantly hugged her and sobbed, “We really missed you.”
I referred to as Ariana final Wednesday to test in on her. She was serving to Jacob together with his homework, however she took a break to provide me an replace. There are so much of different immigrants at her college, however she had solely informed her shut buddies, who she sits with at lunch, concerning the motive for her extended absence. When different folks requested, she simply mentioned, “I had to go to Texas for something.”
She says she’s making an attempt to place the ordeal behind her, however the toll is actual.
Her mom misplaced her job as a result of her boss is uncomfortable using somebody with an ankle monitor. And Ariana worries about her. She additionally worries concerning the folks she met again at Dilley. Days after I requested DHS about a number of households talked about on this story, 5 of them had been launched: Gustavo and his mother, Christian; Teresa and her sons, Alexander and Jorge; Kheilin and her child, Amalia; Darianny and her daughter, Diana. Maria Antonia and her mother, Maria Alejandra, had been returned to Colombia. Others are nonetheless detained. Ariana mentioned, “I wish they got out because they shouldn’t be there any longer.”
Before we hung up, Ariana mentioned one thing that recommended her youthful optimism hadn’t been completely damaged. She’d discovered that she’d gotten higher at enjoying volleyball at Dilley and now plans to check out for her college crew.
For this story, ProPublica analyzed federal information on ICE detentions launched via the Deportation Data Project. The information incorporates information for immigrant arrests and detentions going via October of 2025.