Children, including the very young, have been spending weeks or months in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facility in a remote part of Texas where outside monitors have heard accounts of shortages of clean drinking water, chronic sleep deprivation and kids struggling for hygiene supplies and prompt medical attention, as revealed in a stark new court filing.
Legal experts able to witness conditions made a barrage of allegations about deprivations, violations of legally agreed basic detention standards and humanitarian concerns at the only known Ice center currently holding families. At the facility in Dilley, a small town an hour south-west of San Antonio, kids and their parents described a “prison-like environment” where the guards reportedly call them “inmates” despite them not being criminals, and said they live in “cell-like trailers”.
In a response to the government’s court-ordered compliance report, attorneys at the legal groups responsible for monitoring child detention asserted on behalf of people held that: “Family detention is not only cruel and fundamentally harmful to children but also unjustified.”
The facility, titled the South Texas Family Residential Center, is run on behalf of Ice by the private corrections and detention company CoreCivic, which expects to make $180m annually in revenue from the property through at least March 2030.
The detailed and disturbing descriptions of the lockup’s allegedly inhumane conditions, filed in a US district court on 15 September and accessed by the Guardian, are a result of routine site visits.
CoreCivic directed the Guardian to Ice for comment, which in turn directed the Guardian to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency, though a report from Ice’s juvenile coordinator said that the agency is complying with legal requirements. Comment was requested from DHS but a response was not received prior to publication.
Families the Trump administration wants to deport as part of its aggressive anti-immigration agenda have been ripped from communities across the country and locked away under close surveillance in the facility.
The court filing alleges:
prolonged, vaguely explained detention: This goes beyond the general legal limit of 20 days for children, with accounts of children held for two or three months and a family detained for 45 days, released, then quickly re-detained.
lack of access to drinkable water: Families have not wanted to consume “dirty” water that smells “so horrible”, but drinkable water is often unavailable unless they buy it.
sleep deprivation: Children, especially, are suffering sleeplessness because the lights are never switched off, while officials slam doors, walk in and out frequently and speak loudly on walkie-talkies all night.
inadequate medical care: One boy complained of “acute stomach pain” for six hours before he vomited and ended up being rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery for appendicitis. Monitors observed “children with diseases like leukemia [or] on the autism spectrum … suffering immensely from missing needed therapies and the harsh conditions”.
lack of hygiene products: Apart from liquid hand soap, which reportedly can cause rashes and hives, shampoo and body soap must be paid for.
emotional abuse: Mothers gave accounts such as “I am not allowed to hold my husband’s hand anywhere … there is no place where we can … speak privately”.
poor education: School takes place just one hour daily for each age group and typically constitutes drawing, painting and worksheets, but little real teaching.
self-harm: One parent said his son’s exhaustion, distress and anxiety over continued detention led him to start “throwing himself against the floor and getting bruises”.
CoreCivic chose not to comment on the Dilley center, but in response to similar allegations emerging from an adult facility it operates for Ice in California, and highlighted by the Guardian, the company denied there were problems, including relating to water and hygiene and asserted healthcare was available at all times.
“All our facilities operate with a significant amount of oversight and accountability … to ensure an appropriate standard of living and care for every individual,” a spokesperson said in that case.
The court filing about the Dilley center was made by attorneys from the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, in Santa Ana, California; the National Center for Youth Law, in Oakland, California, and Washington DC; and Children’s Rights, in New York and San Francisco. The authors warn that they will ask the federal court in Los Angeles for “a motion to enforce” legal standards covering child detention at the Ice facility if the Trump administration cannot resolve complaints.
The watchdog visits and court filings fulfill a decades-old legal contract that the US government was forced into in the 90s, known as the Flores settlement agreement, setting minimum federal detention standards for immigrant children. Designed as a vital tool to protect kids’ health and rights, Trump has long wanted to end it.
“I think what has really been underscored for me by the monitoring taking place is how little regard this administration has for children, for children’s welfare, for families, for family unity, for things that should really matter to everybody. And there is just very little commitment to protecting even highly vulnerable children,” said Becky Wolozin, at the National Center for Youth Law.
The Dilley facility – reopened for family detention this year – has capacity for 2,400 detainees, although currently holds far fewer. Another such center 100 miles (160km) away in Karnes county has switched to adults only.
Families at Dilley are typically undergoing fast-tracked deportation processes or already have a court order to remove them from the US.
“The way it feels in family detention is like everything is watched, and nothing is allowed, and the rules are arbitrary, and people are afraid the entire time. And there are life-and-death stakes for people in a place where you can get in trouble for having a toy in the wrong place,” said Wolozin.
Reports of detrimental health consequences for children in family detention have long drawn opposition among advocates, pediatricians, attorneys and experts. In 2016, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) own advisory committee warned against it.