Staff at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center have dialed 911 to report children with severe fever, broken bones, respiratory distress, seizures, plunging oxygen levels, and other medical emergencies. Between October 2025 and February 2026, staff inside the family detention center repeatedly called for emergency medical help for young children and pregnant women, according to dispatch logs. Most of the children were taken to a nearby community hospital, but in at least three cases, children were transferred more than an hour away to a specialized pediatric hospital in San Antonio equipped to treat complex or life-threatening conditions. In one case involving a 22-month-old in respiratory distress, first responders wanted to fly him to the hospital by helicopter but couldn't because of bad weather, while parents of another toddler with low oxygen refused to be transported. Of the 911 calls reviewed, the children involved ranged in age from 2 months old to 13 years old, with most calls involving low oxygen levels and respiratory distress.
The Dilley facility was opened by the Obama administration in 2014, scaled back by the Biden administration in 2021, closed three years later, and reopened by the Trump administration last spring. President Donald Trump’s administration reopened the facility as law enforcement agencies began pursuing immigrants with families who have spent years living in the country’s interior. The number of detained families at Dilley has risen sharply since last fall, with about 5,600 immigrants, more than half children, detained at Dilley since it reopened last year. Roughly 6,200 children have been placed in ICE detention since the beginning of Trump's second term, and the number of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody has exploded since Trump returned to the White House, with more than 60,000 people being held at any given point. The federal government does not publicly disclose information about children in immigration custody, though data from advocacy groups, attorneys and investigative news organizations suggest that a growing number of those detainees are children.
A young Ecuadorian mother and her 7-year-old daughter were detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center for a month after being sent 1,300 miles from their Minnesota home. Many detainees at Dilley have lived in the U.S. for several years with roots in communities, according to lawyers and other observers. ICE has been holding hundreds of children at Dilley, many for months, and Christian Hinojosa and her 13-year-old son were held at Dilley for more than four months before being released this month. Advocates and lawmakers say more than 300 people, including 77 children, are currently locked up at Dilley.
Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy, was detained by ICE agents in Minneapolis and sent to Dilley with his father. Liam and his father were released from Dilley after 10 days following intervention by members of Congress and a judge. Liam grew ill and became lethargic in custody, according to his father and members of Congress who visited the family.
Olivia, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been at Dilley for more than four months. Olivia was apprehended with her family in November, separated, reunited at Dilley, and separated again after ICE agreed to release them but not her. Olivia's brother Manuel drowned during her family's journey from South America to the U.S., and Olivia and her family fled political persecution in DRC, stopped in South America, and completed their journey to the U.S. in December 2022. Olivia was living in Maine with her family, had graduated high school, and completed a nurse's assistant certification before detention, but after their asylum case was denied and appealed, Olivia's family decided to seek asylum in Canada but were detained at the northern border. Olivia was separated from her family because she is 19, an adult, and moved between detention centers wearing an orange jumpsuit.
A Venezuelan mother of two, referred to as Flora, was allegedly trafficked to the U.S. and unlawfully detained by ICE, facing deportation, according to her lawyers. Flora has applications in process for asylum and a visa for trafficking victims, and she was arrested at a routine check-in in January and separated from her children, aged 18 months and four. Flora's alleged trafficker, who impregnated her and lured her to the U.S. under false promises, is free, according to a habeas petition, and Flora's lawyers allege her rights to due process were violated, and they filed a habeas corpus petition on 11 February. Flora came to the U.S. in 2023 from Colombia and was allegedly subjected to rape, forced labor, and abuse by her trafficker, according to the habeas petition, and she escaped her trafficker last year with help from police and a non-profit, but he later found her in Maryland, according to Caroline Pizano. A restraining order was granted by Maryland authorities against Flora's alleged trafficker, and Flora was in the process of reporting herself as a trafficking victim when detained.
TSA staff alerted ICE to a Guatemalan mother and her 9-year-old daughter at San Francisco's airport, leading to their arrest. The arrest went viral after travelers surrounded officers and posted footage on social media, and San Francisco officials called the arrest an 'isolated incident' unrelated to Trump's surge of ICE agents to transit hubs. Government documents show the family was preparing to board a flight to Miami when arrested after TSA flagged their names to ICE, and under the Trump administration, TSA provides ICE with names and birth dates of travelers believed to have removal orders. Angelina Lopez-Jimenez was carrying two Guatemalan passports matching names on a 2019 removal order, and she attempted to flee and resisted officers during her arrest, according to a spokesperson for Homeland Security. Videos show officers holding Lopez-Jimenez down, not showing badges, and whisking her away in a wheelchair with her daughter, while San Francisco Police Department officers formed a barrier between the family and bystanders.
A 22-year-old pregnant woman was deported to Honduras without being asked about her two-year-old daughter left behind, according to a report from the Women’s Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights. A 27-year-old woman arrested at a traffic light was not asked about her children, including whether her 11-year-old son could join her deportation, and ICE has failed to follow policies requiring officers to ask arrestees about their children to decide their fate upon deportation. The Trump administration revised Biden-era guidelines last summer, now only supporting children joining deported parents if 'operationally feasible,' and more than half of parents interviewed said ICE never asked about their children during arrest, detention, or removal. Some parents said they weren't allowed to speak or were ignored when trying to volunteer information about their children.
A father waited five months for his 3-year-old daughter's release from custody after she crossed the border with her mother. The girl suffered alleged sexual abuse at a foster home after being separated from her mother by immigration officials, and the father learned of the abuse only when he turned to the courts. The girl said she was sexually abused by an older child in foster care in Harlingen, Texas, causing bleeding, according to court documents, and the girl underwent a forensic exam and interview, and the abuse allegations were reported to local law enforcement, according to the lawsuit. The older child accused of abuse was removed from the foster program.
Tania Warner, a Canada-born woman, and her autistic 7-year-old daughter Ayla Lucas were detained by ICE at a checkpoint in Sarita, Texas. Warner and Lucas have been forced to sleep on mats in a detention center since their detention, according to Edward Warner, and they have been living legally in the U.S. for five years with visas and are going through the green card process. Officers told Edward Warner there was a problem with Tania's Employment Authorization Document number, and Warner and Lucas were taken to the Rio Grande Valley Central Processing Center in McAllen after not being cleared for release. Edward Warner described conditions as terrible, overcrowded, and loud, with his wife and daughter using 'space blankets.'
A Russian immigrant family at Dilley was told they wouldn't be held more than 20 days because their children were with them, but were held longer. The El Gamal family has been detained longer than any other family at Dilley since it reopened, with five children ages 5-18 in custody since last summer, according to their lawyer.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank is trying to halt the deportation of his wife, Annie Ramos, detained at a Louisiana military base. Ramos was detained as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda, dispensed with leniency toward military families, according to legal experts, and she entered the U.S. in 2005 as a child, and her family failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading to a removal order, according to DHS. Ramos applied for DACA in 2020, but her application is in limbo amid legal fights, according to her husband, and DHS eliminated a 2022 policy considering military service a mitigating factor in immigration enforcement last April. DHS's new policy states military service alone does not exempt aliens from consequences of violating immigration laws, and prior to the Trump administration, DHS generally allowed spouses of active-duty military to gain legal status through policies like parole in place, according to Margaret Stock.
More than 900 children have been held in ICE facilities beyond the 20-day limit set by the Flores Settlement Agreement, according to a new report. Children's rights advocates have started using 100 days as a benchmark because so many children exceed 20 days at Dilley, according to Leecia Welch, and in February, over 30 children at Dilley had been held for more than 100 days. Nearly 600 immigrant children have been held at Dilley with inadequate food and medical care, often beyond court-mandated limits, according to court documents.
The Trump administration began targeting detained immigrant children last year with new rules, leading to a jump in detention times. The federal government motioned to terminate a policy ensuring protection of immigrant children in federal custody, and the number of people in detention with families dropped to roughly 100 last month from January's average of more than 900.
Democratic members of Congress say the Dilley detention center is growing 'more secretive' under new DHS leadership, with cruelty and inadequate medical treatment. When Castro and Rep. Greg Casar visited Dilley, employees read scripts commanded by ICE leadership in Washington, D.C., according to Rep. Joaquin Castro, and Dilley staff refused to answer questions and directed lawmakers to ask in writing to officials in D.C.
In a more recent case not captured in the dispatch logs, 2-month-old Juan Nicolás was taken to a hospital last week with a respiratory illness after his mother said he choked on his own vomit. The family of 2-month-old Juan Nicolás was later deported to Mexico, and last month, a two-month-old boy with bronchitis was deported to Mexico with his mother and sister shortly after he was released from a hospital during their stint at Dilley. ICE confirmed at least two measles cases inside the facility last month after lawyers representing immigrants inside raised alarms over the possibility of an outbreak, and emergency crews have been dispatched to Dilley nearly a dozen times over the last six months for medical emergencies.