FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Melissa Stek, Communications Consultant, melissa@mountgem.com
Tom Salyers, Director of Communications, tsalyers@clasp.org
Washington, DC, February 10, 2026—As Congress’s deadline approaches to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), growing numbers of children and families continue to suffer in immigrant family detention.
Per new data from DetentionReports.com, the number of children and adults in the Dilley family detention center in Texas—an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility—has grown drastically from fewer than 500 people in October to 1,332 people as of late January. New reporting from ProPublica elevates the voices and experiences of just a few of these children, who report contaminated water and food, insufficient medicine, and anguish from being torn from their homes, loved ones, and routines of school and play.
Members of the Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) have continued to raise the alarm on the long-lasting harms of immigration operations and detention on children. In a new report shared with Congress, the children’s advocates highlight numerous stories of children and families harmed by ICE in just the first weeks of 2026, echoing Physicians for Human Rights and the American Academy of Pediatrics, stating, “there is no appropriate amount of time for children to be detained.” Children’s advocates are calling on Congress to free all children and families from ICE detention, refuse additional funding to ICE to terrorize and separate families, and permanently end family detention.
Trudy Taylor Smith, Senior Administrator of Policy and Advocacy, Children’s Defense Fund-Texas, stated:
“No one is safe in ICE detention, and children in particular face enormous risks. Since the Dilley detention facility was reopened last year, families inside have consistently reported medical neglect, dirty water, hunger, and unsanitary conditions. Last month, children inside the facility raised their voices to demand their own freedom, and through the letters and drawings published by ProPublica this week, they have described the anguish, sickness, and fear they are experiencing in this horrific immigration prison. At this point, no government official can claim to be ignorant of the state-sponsored child abuse that is taking place inside this facility. The only moral response is to free these children and their parents immediately, cut off funding for ICE’s systemic violence, and end the inhumane practice of family detention once and for all.”
Melissa Adamson, Senior Attorney at the National Center for Youth Law:
“As Flores counsel, the National Center for Youth Law represents every child held at Dilley, and through personal interviews with families inside the facility, we are witnessing devastating and entirely avoidable harm. Children at Dilley are experiencing profound mental health deterioration the longer they remain in custody, compounded by unmet basic needs like adequate food, clean drinking water, and medical care. The most important thing members of Congress can do to protect detained children is to show up. Visiting Dilley and sharing families’ stories creates real oversight and accountability. We are deeply grateful to members who have visited Dilley and lifted up the stories of children like Diana Crespo-Gonzalez, a seven-year-old girl who was detained with her parents while seeking medical care. Protecting children requires action, not just statements.”
Wendy Cervantes, Director of Immigration and Immigrant Families at the Center for Law and Social Policy:
“There should be no question that a jail is the wrong place for a child. Just in the last two weeks, a toddler detained in Dilley nearly lost her life due to untreated respiratory illnesses and medical neglect in the facility. This story mirrors the very conditions that led to the death of two-year-old Mariee Juarez in the same facility in 2018. We said ‘never again’ then, and now here we are again with hundreds of more young lives at risk. Our members of Congress must stand on the right side of history and do everything in their power to get ICE out of our communities, and children and parents out of ICE’s dangerous detention facilities.”
Zain Lakhani, Director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission:
“This latest reporting confirms what we have known for months about the hazardous conditions inside Dilley. Reports of pregnant women experiencing severe health crises, children being denied clean water, food, and basic medical care, and families being detained in inhumane conditions are contrary to our nation’s values and our policies. These disturbing reports echo what we know about the conditions inside other detention facilities, where vulnerable populations including pregnant women are being detained without access to sufficient food or necessary healthcare. Detention is no place for a family, a pregnant woman, or a child. Congress must act to ensure that these vulnerable populations are protected.”
Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, Executive Director of Children’s HealthWatch:
“This situation should deeply alarm anyone who cares about children’s health and well-being. Decades of research are clear: when children experience prolonged stress, family disruption, inadequate nutrition, and limited access to medical care, the effects can follow them into adulthood. Toxic stress in childhood is associated with long-term consequences for physical health, mental health, emotional attachment, learning, and development. Reports of contaminated water, insufficient medicine, and the anguish of being separated from homes, loved ones, and the routines that help children feel safe are not just immediate humanitarian concerns, they are risk factors for lasting harm. We cannot ignore the evidence. Policies that expose children to these conditions jeopardize their healthy development and their futures.”
