We urge you to shut down the Dilley Immigration Processing Center. There is no humane way to imprison a child and their family. It is nothing more than a trailer prison that detains families.
In fact, the Dilley facility is the only place in the United States dedicated to detaining families with children who have not been charged with a crime. Yet, the Trump Administration continues to detain families and children in support of its mass deportation campaign. Former and current detained families describe horrific conditions perpetuated by CoreCivic and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that are meant to strip them of their dignity and make them feel hopeless. Americans have watched ICE’s brutality play out in their communities, but what happens behind the walls of the Dilley detention facility remains out of sight by design. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must stop imprisoning families, end this inhumanity, and close the Dilley detention facility.
Parents describe horrendous conditions at Dilley, leading to severe depression, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation amongst their children. Children have reported that their food is often contaminated with worms and mold and that they feel sick after drinking tap water. Families also report not being able to sleep at night because the lights are kept on in their rooms throughout the night. Education remains inadequate for middle and high school youth, many of whom were attending school in the U.S. for years before they were detained. No person, much less a child, should be subjected to these conditions.
Medical care provided by CoreCivic staff is delayed, denied, and in many cases outright dismissed, even when children are suffering life-threatening medical emergencies. One minor boy described having severe stomach pain for days, yet a CoreCivic nurse told him to take Ibuprofen and make an appointment with a doctor in a few days. It was not until he vomited from pain that medical staff transported him to a hospital. He was immediately diagnosed with appendicitis and required emergency surgery. Other families say they do not get the medication needed for their chronic illnesses. A diabetic patient described not having access to the regular treatment she needed. ICE and CoreCivic are creating barriers to medical services detained families need. Instead of allowing families to continue treatment within their communities, they detain and force these families to suffer. The Dilley detention facility is unsafe for children and families and must shut down.
Despite this cruelty, your agency violates the Flores Settlement Agreement by routinely detaining children and families past the general 20-day detention limitation governed by the Flores Settlement Agreement (FSA). The FSA requires that children in immigration custody must be held in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their needs and be detained no longer than 20 days in unlicensed facilities. The Trump Administration consistently and systematically violates these requirements. Families at Dilley report being held well beyond that limit with no clear timeline or explanation. In February and March 2026, the government has stated that children’s average time in custody at Dilley was approximately 57 days, and the median time in custody was approximately 44 days, with 92 children being detained for 61-90 days, and 80 children detained for more than 91 days. The FSA exists precisely because courts recognized that detention causes irreparable harm to children. As noted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, there is no evidence indicating that any time in detention is safe for children.
Families detained at Dilley also face severe restrictions on internet and communications access. These restrictions by ICE are clearly meant to limit the flow of information into and out of Dilley. Their internet access is often throttled and many websites are blocked, limiting access to resources crucial to their cases. During a Congressional visit in early April, a Member and staff tested websites that ICE and CoreCivic staff had claimed were accessible but were actually
blocked. Detained families report the same — no traditional search engines, limited educational sites, and little to no web-based games for their kids. DHS has further compounded these restrictions by limiting detainees' access to video calls, a response that came after children used those calls to describe conditions at the facility. These restrictions speak for themselves: an administration with nothing to hide would not silence the communication of families and children inside.
CoreCivic is prioritizing profits over humane treatment of its detainees. In March 2025, CoreCivic announced an agreement with ICE and Target Hospitality Corporations to resume family detention at Dilley. CoreCivic expects to receive approximately $180 million annually at full capacity, while Target Hospitality anticipates $246 million over the five-year contract. Patrick Swindle, President and CEO of CoreCivic, recently boasted that CoreCivic provides the most humane, most efficient, most compliant, and best value to the government. Here, “best value” means maximizing profit through lack of trained personnel, inedible food, and insufficient medical care. CoreCivic cares about their bottom line, not about the people in their care. The Trump Administration’s policy of mass deportation with maximum cruelty aligns with CoreCivic’s mission to provide low-cost and efficient solutions to the government.
No child and family should be imprisoned for seeking safety by legitimately following United States immigration laws. The United States has the tools, the resources, and the legal framework to process these families without detention. Alternatives to detention programs have proven effective, with families appearing for immigration proceedings at rates exceeding 99 percent. Many kids cannot comprehend why their lives suddenly went from spending their days at school learning and playing with their friends to being imprisoned at Dilley with no end in sight.
We demand that you terminate CoreCivic’s contract to operate the Dilley facility and shut down the Dilley Immigration Processing Center immediately.
Editor’s Note: The above remarks were contained in a letter sent by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, on July 15, 2026.
The letter was co-signed by 111 other members of Congress. They were:
Gabe Amo (RI-01), Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Wesley Bell (MO-01), Ami Bera (CA-06), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Julia Brownley (CA-26), Salud Carbajal (CA-24), André Carson (IN-07), Greg Casar (TX-35), Judy Chu (CA-28), Gilbert Cisneros (CA-31), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05), Herb Conaway (NJ-03), Lou Correa (CA-46), Angie Craig (MN-02), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Madeleine Dean (PA-04), Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Maxine Dexter (OR-03), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), John Garamendi (CA-08), Jesús G. “Chuy” García (IL-04), Robert Garcia (CA-42), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Daniel Goldman (NY-10), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Al Green (TX-09), Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07), Jahana Hayes (CT-05), Pablo Hernández (PR-AL), Steven Horsford (NV-04), Val Hoyle (OR-04), Glenn Ivey (MD-04), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), Sara Jacobs (CA-51), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), John Larson (CT-01), George Latimer (NY-16), Summer Lee (PA-12), Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03), Mike Levin (CA-49), Sam Liccardo (CA-16), Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), Stephen Lynch (MA-08), Doris Matsui (CA-07), Sarah McBride (DE-AL), April McClain Delaney (MD-06), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Morgan McGarvey (KY-03), James McGovern (MA-02), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), Analilia Mejia (NJ-11), Christian Menefee (TX-18), Rob Menendez (NJ-08), Grace Meng (NY-06), Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), Kelly Morrison (MN-03), Seth Moulton (MA-06), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Richard Neal (MA-01), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Frank Pallone (NJ-06), Nancy Pelosi (CA-11), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Nellie Pou (NJ-09), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Mike Quigley (IL-05), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Emily Randall (WA-06), Luz Rivas (CA-29), Deborah Ross (NC-02), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Linda Sánchez (CA-38), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Terri Sewell (AL-07), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Darren Soto (FL-09), Melanie Stansbury (NM-01), Greg Stanton (AZ-04), Mark Takano (CA-39), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Jill Tokuda (HI-02), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Lori Trahan (MA-03), Juan Vargas (CA-52), Gabe Vasquez (NM-02), Marc Veasey (TX-33), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), James Walkinshaw (VA-11), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Nikema Williams (GA-05), Frederica Wilson (FL-24).
