Two-year-old held by ICE sick and not getting adequate care, Democrat warns | US immigration
Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro of San Antonio said a two-year-old child being held at a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, was sick and not receiving adequate help. The boy, Kaleth, has a fever and won’t eat the food served at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, where Castro complains detainees have mold and worms.
“When his mother asked for help, the staff said it was ‘mental,'” Castro said. Publish on X. “A vulnerable child in the Dilley trailer prison was suffering and ICE was denying their reality and needs. This is shameful and must be stopped.”
Dilley was criticized for not providing adequate care and food for families. In February, the detention center reported two cases of measles. This is the same facility where five-year-old asylum seeker Liam Conejo Ramos and his father were held for a week after being detained in Minneapolis.
Castro is calling for the detention center’s “immediate closure” and has long said Donald Trump’s immigration agenda is inhumane.
The congressman attempted to obtain the release of several immigrants from Dilley. “I call on ICE to provide Kaleth with necessary medical care and release him and his mother, Joani, immediately,” Castro said.
Earlier this week, Castro posted a video on his social media highlighting his demand for Dilley’s closure. “As a country, we have decided to commodify children’s pain,” he said. “We have allowed investors to profit from the incarceration of innocent children. Some are not even two months old. We must close the Dilley trailer prison and #FreeOurChildren.”
The facility, officially known as the South Texas Family Housing Center, is operated by private corrections and detention company CoreCivic on behalf of ICE. waiting Generating $180 million in annual revenue from the property by at least March 2030.
Brian Todd, CoreCivic’s director of public relations, said in February that claims about access to clean drinking water were clearly false and that health care was available to all detainees. “The health and safety of those entrusted to our care is a top priority for CoreCivic,” he said.
Children and their parents forced to stay in Dilley for weeks or months reported shortages of clean drinking water, chronic sleep deprivation, and children scrambling for hygiene supplies and emergency medical attention.
A Sept. 15 court filing contained detailed and disturbing descriptions of the allegedly inhumane conditions of detention, including descriptions of a “prison-like environment” in which guards called people incarcerated there “inmates” even though they were not criminals and said they lived in “cell-like trailers.”
Alexandra Villarreal contributed reporting
