(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Joaquin Castro, along with more than 110 Democratic members of Congress, has sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin urging the shutdown of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
The facility, which is the only family detention center in the country, was closed during the Biden administration but was reopened last year as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
In the letter, which was first obtained by ABC News, they write, “There is no humane way to imprison a child and their family. It is nothing more than a trailer prison that detains families. In fact, the Dilley facility is the only place in the United States dedicated to detaining families with children who have not been charged with a crime.”
“Former and current detained families describe horrific conditions perpetuated by CoreCivic and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that are meant to strip them of their dignity and make them feel hopeless,” the letter says, referring to the private prison contractor that operates the Dilley facility.
The letter outlines how parents have described “horrendous conditions at Dilley,” including allegations of food “contaminated with worms and mold,” drinking water that leaves detainees feeling sick, lights that stay on through the night and inadequate education and medical care that has led to “severe depression, hopelessness and suicidal ideation amongst their children,” according to the letter.
Medical care “is delayed, denied, and in many cases outright dismissed, even when children are suffering life threatening medical emergencies,” the letter says, describing an alleged incident in which a young boy was not taken to the hospital until after several days of “severe stomach pain,” after which he was diagnosed with appendicitis and required surgery.
Immigrant advocates, medical professionals and lawmakers have previously raised concerns about conditions at the South Texas facility.
ABC News in February interviewed a couple who said their 1-year-old daughter contracted COVID-19 and RSV during their 60-day detention. The family alleged that medical staff at Dilley dismissed their daughter’s symptoms.
Rep. Castro raised his own concerns about a 2-month old he encountered while visiting another family at the facility in February.
At the time, the top medical official at the Department of Homeland Security, which operates the nation’s migrant detention centers, disputed any suggestion that detainees are being denied proper care.
“These allegations of illegal aliens being denied proper medical care in ICE custody are FALSE,” DHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Conley told ABC News in a statement. “It is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, women’s health, mental health services, any needed follow up medical appointments, as well as 24-hour emergency care.”
“This is better, more responsive health care than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives,” Conley’s statement said.
“These representatives remain quiet about the humanitarian crisis that was manufactured by the Biden Administration’s open border policies over the last four years and the scores of children exploited, trafficked and missing,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Do they plan to mention the psychiatric impact on the tens of thousands of children who were smuggled across the border — many by human and sex traffickers?”
“We’ve jumpstarted our efforts to rescue children who were victims of sex and labor trafficking by working with our state and local law enforcement partners to locate these children. President Trump and DHS are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to reunite children with their families,” the spokesperson said.
“These allegations are not consistent with documented conditions at Dilley,” CoreCivic spokesperson Steven Owen said in a statement. “Independent state and local testing confirms the water — the same municipal water the surrounding community drinks — is safe. Families receive three meals daily from menus reviewed and approved by a registered dietitian, and care from pediatricians, child psychiatrists and other clinicians who serve them every day with skill and compassion.”
“Decisions about who is detained and for how long rest with the federal government, not CoreCivic,” Owen said.
The Democrats’ letter claims that children are held at the Dilley facility beyond the general 20-day limit established under the Flores Settlement Agreement, a legal settlement from the 1990s that outlines appropriate protections and conditions for detaining minors.
“Families at Dilley report being held well beyond that limit with no clear timeline or explanation,” the letter says. “In February and March 2026, the government has stated that children’s average time in custody at Dilley was approximately 57 days, and the median time in custody was approximately 44 days, with 92 children being detained for 61-90 days, and 80 children detained for more than 91 days.”
A DHS spokesperson, responding to a February ABC News report about the extended custody times, said, “For years, the Flores consent decree has been a tool of the left to promote an open borders agenda. It is long overdue for a single district in California to stop managing the Executive Branch’s immigration functions. The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our immigration system.”
“No child should be in a place like the Dilley Trailer Prison,” Castro said in a statement. “Under Trump, ICE is ripping children away from their families, school, and lives. They should be treated like kids — not criminals. I am grateful that over 100 of my colleagues in Congress are joining the fight to shut down the Dilley Trailer Prison.”
In addition to shuttering Dilley, the letter demands that DHS terminates the contract it has with CoreCivic, alleging that “CoreCivic is prioritizing profits over humane treatment of its detainees.”
“No child and family should be imprisoned for seeking safety by legitimately following United States immigration laws,” the letter says. “The United States has the tools, the resources, and the legal framework to process these families without detention.”
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