Worms in food, poor medical care, lights on 24/7: Families tell of life in Texas detention center

When ICE officers in Minneapolis detained a 5-year-old boy and his father last month and sent them to a Texas detention center, many Americans were alarmed. But he was hardly an outlier. ICE has been holding hundreds of children and their parents at the Dilley detention facility, many for well beyond the 20-day limit set by longstanding court order. When Dilley opened in 2014 most families held there had just crossed from Mexico. But since the Trump administration reopened it last spring, the number of children and parents held there has risen sharply. Many are families who have lived in the U.S. for several years, uprooting children in what both families and experts say is often a traumatizing experience.