{"id":231848,"date":"2026-03-23T00:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T00:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/231848\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T00:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T00:58:09","slug":"young-immigrants-face-concerning-conditions-at-texas-site-lawyers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/231848\/","title":{"rendered":"Young immigrants face concerning conditions at Texas site, lawyers say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nearly 600 immigrant children were held in a Texas family detention center in recent months without enough food, medical care or mental health services, as their time inside stretched beyond court-mandated limits, according to court documents. <\/p>\n

Children and families held at the detention facility in Dilley, where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were sent this year, also faced virus outbreaks and lasting lockdowns in December and January, although the total number of children held there has fallen in recent weeks, according to the attorney reports and site visits.<\/p>\n

The case of Liam, a preschooler who was wearing a blue bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack when he was picked up in Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, stoked protests over the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown, including among detainees who gathered and held up signs in the yard behind the Dilley facility\u2019s chain-link fences.<\/p>\n

Last week about 85 children remained detained at the Dilley facility, but concerning conditions continued, said Mishan Wroe, directing attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, who visited in mid-March. In early February, a legal advocate for the children observed about 280 children. <\/p>\n

The filings Friday cited numerous poignant cases, including that of a 13-year-old girl held at Dilley who tried to take her own life after staff withheld prescribed antidepressants and denied her request to join her mother, as reported by the Associated Press<\/a>. The government reported there had been \u201cno placements on suicide watch,\u201d according to the filing. The AP obtained Dilley facility discharge documents that described a \u201csuicide attempt by cutting of wrist\u201d and \u201cself-harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The filings were submitted in a lawsuit launched in 1985 that led to the creation in 1997 of court-ordered supervision of standards and eventually established a 20-day limit in custody. The Trump administration seeks to end the Flores settlement, as it is known.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, the Flores consent decree has been a tool of the left that is antithetical to the law and wastes valuable U.S. taxpayer funded resources,\u201d the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. \u201cBeing in detention is a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys for detainees highlighted the government\u2019s data showing longer custody times for immigrant children, and also cited worms in food and poor access to medical care or sufficient legal counsel as reported by families and monitors at federal facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cDilley remains a hellhole,\u201d said Leecia Welch, the chief legal director at Children\u2019s Rights, who visits the center regularly to ensure compliance. \u201cAlthough the number of children has decreased, the suffering remains the same.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Homeland Security spokesperson said the Dilley facility is retrofitted for families, who receive basic necessities including adequate food and water while in detention, and the Trump administration is working to quickly deport detainees.<\/p>\n

A report from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed that about 595 immigrant children were held in custody for more than the 20-day limit in December and January, with some stretching into months, per the court filings.<\/p>\n

\u201cApproximately 265 of these children were detained for more than 50 days and a shocking 55 children were detained more than 100 days,\u201d the filings state.<\/p>\n

That is up from a previous government disclosure late last year that showed that from August to September, 400 children had been held at the Dilley facility beyond the 20-day limit. Homeland Security did not respond to questions seeking comment on the data. <\/p>\n

Chief U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee of the Central District of California is scheduled to hold a hearing on the case later this month.<\/p>\n

Burke writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 600 immigrant children were held in a Texas family detention center in recent months without enough food,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[105183,14428,105182,52430,39044,53969,105181,1431,14630,5776,105180,48,52,51,47,50,49,31381,17026,1695,72],"class_list":["post-231848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-attorney-report","tag-condition","tag-court-mandated-limit","tag-customs-enforcement-agent","tag-detainee","tag-detention-facility","tag-dilley-facility","tag-family","tag-filing","tag-homeland-security","tag-immigrant-child","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-medical-care","tag-recent-month","tag-trump-administration","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}