Parents and children held for long stretches in ICE custody at the nation’s only family immigration detention center are again speaking out about medical care and other conditions at the Texas lockup run by the for-profit company CoreCivic.
Legal aid groups collected oral testimonials from detainees during visits in recent weeks to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center located about an hour south of San Antonio. The sworn declarations were filed in federal court March 20 as part of ongoing litigation challenging the length of detention for immigrant children.
Scripps News reviewed the testimonials as part of an ongoing investigation called ICE Inc. that explores how private companies are profiting off the Trump administration’s push to hold more immigrants in detention.
“This place has weakened us physically and mentally and it is hard to keep going,” a mother says who had been held for 113 days at Dilley with her 9-year-old daughter. “I know my daughter and I will need a lot of mental health support when we get out of here.”
The mother says she has filed grievances about medical neglect, lack of education and support and “the guards’ bad treatment” of children.
“They listen to the grievance and say they will do something, but then they don’t,” the mother’s declaration says.
Her daughter has twice fainted from hunger because allergies prevent her from eating much of the food, she says.
CoreCivic has consistently disputed all claims about mistreatment and lack of care for detainees. A spokesman pointed Scripps News to a company statement posted online.
“Nothing matters more to CoreCivic than the health and safety of the people in our care,” the statement says, referencing “recurring inaccurate and misleading claims” about Dilley.
Those statements, and a March 13 report filed by the Trump administration that found no major problems at Dilley, contrast with the vivid descriptions of poor conditions described in the declarations.
In one testimonial a detained mother says her 2-year-old suffered from an unresolved tooth infection for three weeks, leading to fever.
“She looks thinner, is more tired, and is always lying down,” the mother says. “She can barely eat anything due to pain.”
Another mother says her 9-year-old daughter with autism is not receiving any of her regular medicine at Dilley.
“Her condition has gotten worse now that she’s detained,” the mother says.
The girl is among many children confined at Dilley who have expressed their feelings through drawings.
Parents have accused Dilley guards of destroying their children’s artwork.
“My older daughter started getting upset ... the officer turned to her, held it up, ripped it up and laughed in her face,” a mother says in a sworn statement.
CoreCivic says claims about staff confiscating or destroying children’s artwork are not true.
The court filings show that parents too are sick. A 32-weeks pregnant woman, detained with her 3-year-old daughter, says her Hepatitis B is going untreated.
“I am in agony, I am exhausted,” she says.
Detained children also share their own stories of suffering in the new court filings.
A 16-year-old who lived in Texas nine years before being sent to Dilley says, “I am having panic attacks. I am so worried about missing three months of my junior year.”
A 13-year-old from Chicago speaks about spending the holidays at Dilley.
"ICE detained me with my mom and separated me from my dad,” the child says. “I feel so sad that I had to spend Christmas and New Year’s without my dad. Every day that I remain here is destroying my hope for my life.”
Child welfare experts have warned about the trauma caused by confinement.
The long-standing Flores federal court ruling says children in most cases should not stay in immigration detention more than 20 days.
ICE Inc. | Scripps News investigates immigrant detention
But as Scripps News has been reporting in the ICE Inc. investigation, hundreds of children have been held far longer than 20 days at Dilley even as the detained population has dropped significantly in recent weeks amid scrutiny from news media and lawmakers. Neither DHS nor ICE has explained the reason for the falling numbers.
The most recent tally shows 20 children in custody in March for 50 days and counting.
DHS declined to answer a list of questions from Scripps News and sent an email that said in part, “This facility is purpose-built to ensure that families in detention are comfortable and have all of their needs cared for — all at the taxpayer’s expense.”
Mishan Wroe, directing attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, visited families at Dilley earlier this month during the effort to compile the declarations.
"The kids that I met with are incredibly resilient and brave and really frustrated and struggling with the situation that they face," she said. “The juxtaposition of what was their life and what is now their life is really severe and difficult to deal with.”
The court filings are an effort to convince a judge that the government is holding kids longer than necessary. They argue the families should be released back to their homes in the U.S. while their deportation proceedings play out.
