Thank you for the updated coverage of the horrendous conditions suffered by those at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who has visited the facility more than once, has been a beacon of hope to those held in confinement there. He and those who accompanied him described the deplorable, inhumane and overcrowded conditions at the facility, a place where adults and children are being housed and detained.
CoreCivic has a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the operation of the facility. Lawmakers had noted in a letter on July 15 that children and their families were exposed to “contaminated food, unsafe drinking water, inadequate education, disrupted sleep, and delayed or denied medical care.”
The mission of the CoreCivic facility and those who place people there is one of hatred, dehumanization and terror. This is not America. It is not what our country wants, and it is not who we are as people.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy on releasing body camera footage in the agency’s “best interests” should instead be in the interest of justice, transparency, the public and ICE employees.
The footage should be released within 24 hours of the recorded incident.
For city leaders to consider cutting the San Antonio Book Festival out of its fiscal 2027 budget is irrational and disgraceful. The book festival most recently drew 25,000 attendees and 100 authors from small and large presses, with an estimated $3 million impact to local economy.
This is a case of everything to gain, everything to lose.
You don’t throw away a cultural event that promotes literacy in a city that values it. The $150,000 in tax dollars to support the book festival is a small cost for our whole population to gain quality of life from reading, to grow and to do good with it.
As a participant of the 2026 book festival, I witnessed the joy of putting the printed word in the hands of those hungry for truth via a good story.
Free access to books transcends entertainment. It is freedom itself.