Pressroom

Dilley, Texas — Yesterday, beloved educator and child advocate, Ms. Rachel, posted to her nearly five million followers on Instagram her concern for the children detained at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) South Texas Family Detention Center (nicknamed Dilley) in Dilley, Texas. The National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention, composed of more than 40 organizations across the country, applauds Ms. Rachel, and calls on all elected leaders and prominent individuals with public platforms to demand children and their parents be released from Dilley immediately, a permanent end to family detention, and that Congress not give ICE any more money in the 2026 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill.

The Dilley Detention Center, which jails parents with their children–-including babies–-has a well-documented record of abuse. Recent reports detail how kids in Dilley have found worms and mold in their food, are constantly sick and having trouble sleeping, and are dealing with thoughts of self harm or suicide. Medical and child welfare professionals have repeatedly noted that family detention is especially harmful to children, leading to life-long emotional and mental health issues. Now with active measles cases at Dilley, the already unsafe facility is a tinderbox of impending tragedy for children and their parents.

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, a national symbol of ICE cruelty and family detention. The National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention says the pressure to shut down Dilley must only intensify.

Members of the coalition 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. We applaud Ms. Rachel for using her platform to demand what we all know: childhood is a fleeting period of time that has a tremendous impact on setting the foundation for a person’s lifelong well-being – it must be protected. Jailing kids and stripping parents of their fundamental right to keep them safe is unconscionable. No one is safe in ICE custody, especially children. We must continue to unite across the country to demand no more money for ICE, no more abuse and death at the hands of ICE, no more family detention.”

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, said: “No child should ever be detained. Immigration detention is always inhumane, and the measles outbreak inside the immigration prison in Dilley only adds to the risks children and their parents are already subjected to while being detained, including extreme stress, hunger, poor nutrition, medical neglect, and unsanitary conditions. ICE has consistently failed to provide safe conditions or adequate health care for families in detention. The only humane response to the current crisis is to release families from Dilley, close this dangerous facility, and end the policy of family detention once and for all.”

Hortencia Rodriguez, director of community partnerships with the Acacia Center for Justice, said: “Children are among the most vulnerable members of our community. Leaving them in family detention while conditions worsen and their physical and mental health decline, goes against the values we claim to uphold. Caring for children is not political. Their safety and futures are at risk as we continue this cruel practice. We all carry the responsibility of doing right by Liam Conejo Ramos, and the many children like him who are still locked up, to urgently bring an end to family detention now and forever.”

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.”

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Executive Director, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice stated: “Our many faith traditions teach us that caring for children is holy work and that we are called to defend the most vulnerable in our society. Indeed, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus reserves some of his most damning words for those who harm and abuse children. If he refused to mince words, neither can we. Today, to walk in the tradition of God and God’s many prophets is to decry the inhumane conditions of family detention in Dilley. Here, in the wealthiest country in the world, we should be doing everything we can to welcome, feed, house, educate, and care for our beloved young—rather than illegally caging them in a facility unfit for human life. We’re grateful to Ms. Rachel for speaking out against this injustice. Together with her and thousands of other moral leaders, we demand the immediate release of families from Dilley and an end to family detention once and for all.”

###