Dilley, Texas — Over the weekend Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported at least two active measles cases at the South Texas Family Detention Center (Dilley). The ICE facility, which jails parents with their children–-including babies–-has a well documented record of abuse, including medical neglect. Family detention, a policy that is widely condemned by the American public and was dormant for years prior to Trump’s return in 2025, has received a swell of backlash in recent weeks after the jailing of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was released with his father from the facility on Sunday. Advocates say the pressure to shut down Dilley must only intensify.
Medical and child welfare professionals have noted again and again that family detention is especially harmful to children, leading to life-long emotional and mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and weight loss, among other physical and behavioral health problems. Now with active measles cases, the already unsafe facility is a tinderbox of impending tragedy for children and their parents.
Members of the National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention, comprised of more than 40 organizations across the country, issued the following statements:
Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director at Detention Watch Network, said: “As the outcry over ICE abuse and violence continues to grow, we must demand an end to family detention. Jailing kids and stripping parents of their fundamental right to keep them safe is unconscionable. Now we are at a boiling point as kids and their parents are facing an extremely contagious, life-altering illness. No one is safe in ICE custody, especially children. We must continue to unite across the country to say no more money for ICE, no more neglect and death at the hands of ICE, no more family detention.”
Mike Ishii, Executive Director, Tsuru for Solidarity, stated: “A measles outbreak at Dilley only confirms the deadly conditions to which children and families are being subjected to in an unaccountable, U.S. detention system. Children imprisoned in cages are always subjected to medical neglect and abuse in a cruel system designed to inflict harm . Trauma, abuse, neglect, family separation, denial of medical care and human rights violations are the hallmarks of child detention. But we all know that children are the sacred trust. As community members we must unite to stop state sanctioned violence being waged upon children. End family and child detention.”
Sirine Shebaya, Executive Director, National Immigration Project, said: “Dilley is not a shelter; it is a cage, and now it is a disease incubator. ICE is knowingly warehousing babies and young children in conditions where preventable illnesses can spread unchecked. This is state-sanctioned child endangerment. Every day families remain imprisoned at Dilley, the government is knowingly exposing children to serious harm. The only responsible response is immediate release of all families and the permanent closure of Dilley.”
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Executive Director, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice, said: “The news of measles tearing through a federal family detention facility — where young children and parents are caged behind locked gates — is a moral and political crisis that should shock the conscience of our nation. In the richest country in the world, that has the resources to ensure the health of all people, it is unconscionable to have families confined in conditions that make contagion almost inevitable. This outbreak is not an accident of nature but a predictable consequence of a cruel and broken carceral, immigration and healthcare system. It is an affront to God and the sanctity of all God’s children and the instruction to defend the vulnerable and welcome the immigrant. We demand an end to family and child detention and that authorities ensure immediate comprehensive medical care and transparent oversight at the South Texas Family Detention Center.”
Sulma Franco, Immigration Campaigns Director, Grassroots Leadership, said: “We have long known that detention centers should not exist. Dilley is no exception, as it operates by stealing the innocence of children and taking away their parents' autonomy. We know that it is not a safe or appropriate place for families. We know the food is very poor, and even worse when it comes to healthcare as there is no access to medicine—let alone access to a doctor. Every request for medication takes up to a week after the request is made, which is totally inhumane. It is unacceptable that these corporations are profiting from the suffering of detained children and parents. Enough psychological trauma and separation of families. Dilley must release all families and close its doors forever.”
Trudy Taylor Smith, senior administrator of Policy and Advocacy, Children's Defense Fund-Texas, stated: "The current measles outbreak inside the Dilley detention center poses an urgent threat to the health and safety of everyone who is imprisoned there, but especially the hundreds of children whose bodies have already been weakened by the poor nutrition, foul drinking water, extreme stress, and lack of access to medical care that ICE has subjected them to. This life-threatening outbreak is a predictable consequence allowing ICE to lock up families in inhumane conditions and to operate completely outside the law. Now is the time for all of us to demand an end to family and child detention, and for Congress to cut off all funding for ICE, which has consistently demonstrated cruelty toward children and callous disregard for human life. Every child deserves to be free, protected by caring adults, and provided with the resources they need to thrive. The children detained right now in Dilley, Texas and across the country are counting on us to act, and the stakes have never been higher."
Amy Fischer, Director for Refugee and Migrant Rights, Amnesty International USA, said: "The news of a measles outbreak at Dilley, while horrifying, is unfortunately not a surprise. Reports of medical neglect and children's malnourishment at Dilley are not new. The administration's constant decision to prioritize the dehumanization of immigrants over the well being of families represents a system of deliberate neglect designed to punish people for searching for a better life. The only appropriate response is to immediately release all of the families, close Dilley, and end the practice of family detention."
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