ICE’s main detention center where it holds families awaiting deportation is beset by a “culture of cruelty,” according to a report by a senior Senate Democrat who said migrants were made to wait for medical care, provided undrinkable water and faced taunts from guards.
Parents and children said the staff at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, would intentionally eat candy, pizza and cookies in front of children who, under the rules of the facility, were prohibited from treats.
“One child described a guard slowly eating a lollipop in front of detained children ’on purpose’ to make them ’feel bad,’” said the report, compiled by Sen. Richard Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Families detained at the facility said the water from the tap tasted terrible, forcing them to buy from the commissary — where they paid $30 for 24 bottles.
The food was also unpalatable to some families, who complained their children couldn’t, or wouldn’t, eat it. One family from Peru reported having to buy instant noodles from the commissary for their children’s meals.
Children also complained that the school classes they were offered were insulting — including a 16-year-old who complained he was told to draw in coloring books for his schoolwork.
“Children and their parents described a top-down culture of cruelty among Dilley staff, including guards deliberately disrupting children’s sleep at night, purposely entering rooms without knocking, and taunting children who are often provided with inedible food by eating candy and pizza in front of them,” Mr. Durbin said in a statement releasing his report.
The Washington Times has sought comment from the Department of Homeland Security for this report.
Dilley’s family facility held about 425 migrants as of July 11.
Family detention has been a controversial aspect of immigration enforcement because it involves children.
Immigrant rights advocates say children shouldn’t be held in detention at all. Those who back stricter enforcement of immigration laws, though, say families must be detained together to deport them.
The family detention centers are different from border holding pens.
Those pens are for people being held for hours or a few days just as they crossed the border — and gave rise to the “kids in cages” accusation that has plagued multiple administrations.
The family centers, meanwhile, offer dorm-style bedrooms, classrooms for children to attend school, rooms for access to computers and outdoor recreation areas.
Dilley is overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, and operated by CoreCivic, a private contractor. It was opened in 2014 in response to a surge of illegal immigrant families rushing the border late in the Obama administration.
The Biden administration shuttered the facility and effectively banned longer-term detention for migrant families. That helped fuel an unprecedented surge of illegal immigrant children and families attempting to cross the border.
Mr. Durbin said conditions at Dilley violate a decades-old court settlement governing migrant children.
Under a 2015 judge’s ruling, illegal immigrant children who arrive at the border as part of a family are not supposed to be in Homeland Security’s custody for more than 20 days. Mr. Durbin said “almost every family” his team talked to had been there longer — some for “many months.”
The Democratic investigators spoke to 20 families and 40 women during two hours at the facility. The investigators complained that they usually had been given more time, but ICE imposed the limit on them.
Investigators were allowed to follow up with some of the adult women by phone.
Mr. Durbin’s staff recorded a number of cases where families said they struggled to get medical care.
One 5-year-old had multiple cavities but had to wait 10 months to get them treated. His 16-year-old brother, who had extreme abdominal pain, was initially given ibuprofen, then, after vomiting, had to wait six hours for an ambulance approved by the CoreCivic contract to arrive.
Another family said they were refused blankets by the staff.
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