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‘All you will feel is sadness and mostly depression’ inside a Texas camp holding a growing number of immigrant families, children write
Alex Woodward in New York Monday 09 February 2026 21:09 GMT- Bookmark
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A seven-year-old boy just wants to go back to school. A nine-year-old girl was on her way to Disney World. A 12-year-old boy is watching families around him “no longer have hope.”
Letters from inside a sprawling immigration detention center in rural Texas glimpse what life is like for a growing number of immigrant families with children, from the voices of children themselves.
The letters, collected by ProPublica, were published as the Dilley Immigration Processing Center comes under heightened scrutiny from members of Congress and advocacy groups while Donald Trump’s administration accelerates a mass deportation effort that has increasingly targeted immigrants with families.
The children — some of whom say they have been held there for months — are bored, overwhelmed with sadness, losing out on schoolwork, bracing for verbal abuse from detention center staff, and frustrated by what they see as an unjust immigration system that punishes families who are trying to support them, and who fear returning to the countries they fled. They miss their normal lives, friends and classmates, some of whom are hundreds of miles away.
“I don’t want to be in this place,” wrote 7-year-old Mia. “I want to go to my school, I miss my grandparents, I miss my friends, I don’t like the food here, I miss my school, I don’t like being here, I am bored here, I don’t feel so good in this place, I already want to leave this place, I miss my uncles, I hope to leave here soon.”
open image in galleryA growing number of immigrant families are being detained at a rural facility in Texas as the Trump administration turned its focus on people with families in the country’s interior (AFP via Getty Images)A surge of family detentions
Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions have exploded over the last year, with more than 70,000 people being held at any given point inside detention centers across the country.
While the federal government does not publicly disclose information about children in immigration custody, data from advocacy groups, attorneys and investigative news organizations suggest that a growing number of those detainees are children.
The Dilley detention center, which is operated by private prison firm CoreCivic, is roughly 70 miles south of San Antonio. Joe Biden’s administration stopped holding families there in 2021, but Trump re-opened the facility as his administration began pursuing immigrants with families who have spent years living in the country’s interior.
Roughly 3,500 detainees, more than half of them children, have cycled through the facility since it reopened, according to an analysis from ProPublica.
open image in galleryDilley Immigration Processing Center in rural Texas has come under heightened scrutiny after measles outbreaks and allegations from lawmakers, attorneys and detainees about conditions inside (AP)Children generally cannot be detained for longer than 20 days, though court filings and testimony collected by ProPublica suggest many children are being held there for weeks or months at a time, including two teenage brothers who have been there for four months.
Jorge said he celebrated his 14th birthday in Dilley with a small cake made with commissary cookies. He spends most of his days sleeping.
Fear of returning
Nine-year-old Maria traveled from Colombia to visit her mother in Florida, where the family was planning to visit Disney World. ICE officers detained them upon her mother’s arrival from New York and then sent them to Texas.
Maria said she fainted twice inside Dilley.
“When I arrived every night I cried and now I don’t sleep well,” she wrote. “I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family.”
Maria and her mother were later deported to Colombia.
Fourteen-year-old Ariana and her mother were detained in New York City December 1 during a regular check-in with ICE, which they are required to attend as they await a decision from an immigration court judge in their asylum case.
Ariana, who is originally from Honduras, fears that she will be forced to return.
“I have never felt so much fear to go to a place as I feel here every time I remind myself that once I go back to Honduras a lot of dangerous things could happen to my mom and my younger siblings [who] haven’t been able to see their mom in more than a month,” she wrote.
Inside Dilley, “all you will feel is sadness and mostly depression,” she wrote.
open image in galleryImmigrant families are routinely detained immediately after immigration court appearances or during routine check-in appointments at ICE offices (Getty Images)Recent detainees include five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and two-year-old Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis, along with their fathers.
Liam and his father Adrian Conejo Arias were ordered released from the facility earlier this month, and Chloe was ordered to the custody of a family attorney, but their cases have fueled outrage against the Trump administration’s expansive efforts to arrest and quickly remove thousands of people from the country.
The two children were among at least seven students from the same school district detained by federal agents in recent weeks, ranging in age from five to 17 years old, according to Zena Stenvik, the superintendent for Columbia Heights Public Schools.
In letters obtained by ProPublica, children say they’re falling behind in school without access to appropriate education inside.
Alexander Perez, a 15-year-old from the Dominican Republic, told ProPublica that classes at Dilley consist of mixed age groups with only 12 students at a time for one hour lessons on a first-come, first-served basis.
One instructor turned a social studies lesson into what felt like a lecture about immigration policy, he said.
“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 told ProPublica. “I didn’t think that was right.”
‘People are always sick’
ICE confirmed at least two measles cases inside the Dilley center this month after lawyers representing immigrants inside raised alarms over the possibility of an outbreak and a wave of reported illnesses among children.
Another recent lawsuit alleges detention center staff failed to provide adequate medical care for a gravely ill 18-month-old girl who was hospitalized with life-threatening respiratory illnesses after ICE allegedly ignored her parents’ pleas for aid.
open image in galleryDemocratic Rep. Joaquin Castro, left, met with five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Conejo Arias after their lawsuit alleging wrongful detention inside Dilley sparked international outrage against Trump’s deportation campaign (Rep. Joaquin Castro)In their letters provided to ProPublica, the children say people inside are “always sick” and detention staff “don’t care.”
“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,” wrote 12-year-old Ender.
“They don’t have schools, doctor, all they have are nurses,” wrote Ariana. “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.”
Homeland Security insists that detainees in ICE custody have access to “the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives.”
“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” according to assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”
DHS has repeatedly defended its detention of children with immigrant parents and has urged families to “take control of their departure” from the United States with the CBP Home app.
“We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream,” McLaughlin said. “If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
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