Dilley Family Detention Center Triples in Size Amid Growing Controversy Over Conditions
ICE's Dilley family detention center has nearly tripled since October to 1,332 people, including an estimated 800 children, amid protests, measles outbreak, and criticism from lawmakers.
The population at ICE’s Dilley family detention center in south Texas has surged from fewer than 500 people in October to 1,332 as of late January, according to data from DetentionReports.com. This nearly three-fold increase has occurred alongside mounting controversy over conditions at the facility, including a measles outbreak, protests by detained families, and condemnation from members of Congress.
The recent average population of 1,332 includes 374 male detainees and 958 female detainees, although we do not have information about their ages. While ICE does not report how many detainees are children, the facility’s structure requires at least one parent and one child per family unit. Given this minimum ratio and that families typically include more children than adults, approximately 800 of those detained are likely children. Nearly all detainees at Dilley (1,316 out of 1,332) have no criminal history beyond immigration violations.
As the nation’s only family detention center currently in operation, Dilley holds families transferred from across the country. This geographic concentration means children and parents arrested in places like Minnesota face detention in rural south Texas, more than 1,000 miles from their communities, legal counsel, and family support networks. As many people have said previously, the rural location of detention facilities serves as a barrier to oversight, accountability, and due process.
For more background on DetentionReports.com and its recent upgrades, see our latest update here:
Just this morning, ProPublica published an article on Dilley that claimed the facility was holding about “750 families, nearly half of them including children, as well as some 370 single adult women being held at this facility.” I don’t know if Dilley held large numbers of single adults women in the past; this last part was new to me. Nevertheless, the total population that ProPublica estimates—1,120 people—is a little lower than our estimate but within a plausible range depending on when they received that number and how much the facility grew in the intervening time.
The family detention facility is located in the Congressional district of Rep. Henry Cuellar (T-28). Cuellar, a Democrat, has been a vocal supporter of immigration enforcement and border control and often votes to expand funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Trump recently issued Cuellar a full pardon for a long slate of pending federal bribery charges, then got upset when Cuellar didn’t switch to being a Republican. Reports also show that Cuellar receives more donation from private detention contracts than any other member of Congress (tied with Rep Sanford Bishop in Georgia, also a Democrat). The article from The Appeal says:
“Democratic Reps. Sanford Bishop (D-Georgia) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) each received a total of $21,000 in donations from private prison companies—more than any other sitting member of Congress. CoreCivic and MTC donated to Bishop; CoreCivic, GEO Group, and MTC donated to Cuellar. CoreCivic and GEO Group each operate facilities in Cuellar’s district.”
Conditions Inside Dilley
Multiple sources paint a troubling picture of conditions inside the facility, which is operated by private prison company CoreCivic under federal contract.
Immigration attorney Eric Lee, who visited the facility in late January, described Dilley as “a horrible, horrible place,” alleging that drinking water is “putrid” and often undrinkable, and that meals have contained “bugs,” dirt, and debris. “The guards are just as tough as the guards at the adult facilities. This is not a place that you would want to have your child be for even 15 minutes,” Lee told Texas Public Radio.
U.S. Representatives Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett visited Dilley on January 28 and used stronger language. Castro characterized what they observed as “inhumanity.” Crockett told reporters the water at the facility is not safe to drink and called on the public to stand up against what is happening. “If you allow this to continue to happen, then you are complicit,” she said.
The lawmakers described meeting with five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were detained in Minneapolis and transferred to Dilley. Castro said the boy appeared “lethargic” and that his father reported Liam “has been very depressed,” “hasn’t been eating well,” and has been “asking about his family and saying that he wants to go be back in school with his classmates.” Crockett added that Liam’s father has been washing the child’s only set of clothes daily and hanging them to dry overnight.
NBC Reporter Mike Hixenbaugh has a descriptive thread on what children are going through on Bluesky below.
The ProPublica article mentioned above also includes letters written by children currently being held in the facility. I’ll include one here for example, but I would encourage you to visit the ProPublica article for more context and samples.
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and Congressman Castro met with families inside Dilley.
These conditions reflect broader structural problems with privatized immigration detention. As my colleagues Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon discussed with me, the for-profit nature of contracted detention facilities creates downward economic pressures that often result in substandard medical care, food, and living conditions. These pressures make facilities ripe for illness, disease spread, abuse, and neglect. The problem has worsened as oversight mechanisms at the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security have been largely eviscerated and opportunities for meaningfully addressing legitimate complaints from detainees have been minimized.
For readers who followed my conversation with Javier Hidalgo and Faisal Al-Juburi from RAICES Texas in October, the conditions at Dilley may not come as a surprise. RAICES provides pro bono legal support for immigrant families detained at facilities like Dilley and has documented these problems for months. As Javier noted in our discussion, the work is not about winning every case—the system is too stacked against immigrants for that to happen. Instead, it is about doing as much as possible to advocate for the well-being of these families and bearing witness so that these stories are not forgotten. The current crisis at Dilley confirms what advocates have been warning about since the facility reopened.
Protest and Resistance Over Treatment of Detained Families
On January 24, detained families staged a protest inside Dilley. According to Eric Lee, who witnessed the demonstration, guards abruptly ordered attorneys to leave the facility, citing “an incident.” As Lee walked toward his car, he heard what sounded like “hundreds of children” shouting with voices he described as “high-pitched” and “urgent.” He said he could see children streaming from dormitory areas behind a chain-link fence and chanting “Libertad” (Freedom).
Lee later learned from clients that the protest was triggered by concerns over the treatment of 5-year-old Liam Ramos. Lee described the action as a peaceful demonstration, not a riot, and noted that it carried risk for detained families.
Measles Outbreak & Calls to Shut Down the Facility
On February 1, federal and state officials confirmed two detainees at Dilley have “active measles infections.” The Department of Homeland Security said it halted “all movement” and quarantined some migrants. Texas Department of State Health Services is working with the federal government to provide vaccine doses.
The measles cases are particularly concerning given the facility’s population density and reported conditions. Medical experts warned that measles can spread rapidly in institutional settings. “Measles is the most contagious virus agent there is and so it can spread very quickly in an institutional facility if there’s a significant cohort of unvaccinated kids and adults,” Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine, told the Texas Tribune.
Representative Castro called for the facility to be “shut down immediately,” arguing that “because of the close-quarter conditions at Dilley, lack of prompt medical response and capacity, and lack of expertise with diseases such as measles, Dilley is not equipped to combat any spread.”
The Data on Dilley
The full facility report at DetentionReports.com shows the dramatic population increase through our Interval ADP charts. The facility, which has a guaranteed minimum capacity of 2,400, averaged a 26-day length of stay. The facility is about average for length of stay but is quickly growing to be one of the largest detention facilities in the country by total population.
The Interval ADP graph reveals an important historical context: Dilley held larger numbers during the Biden administration. However, family detention had been phased out completely during that period, meaning the facility was not holding parents and children together. The current expansion represents a return to family detention under the Trump administration.
This is not the first time we have seen family detention expand at Dilley. The largest expansion came during the Obama administration, which instituted family detention and built capacity even larger than current numbers. The cyclical nature of these policies shows how family detention operates as a recurring tool of immigration enforcement, expanding and contracting across administrations.
What the data cannot show is what Representatives Castro and Crockett described: children who are “mentally broken because of the trauma they’re experiencing,” mothers raising concerns about children who are “throwing up,” and families detained for months in conditions they characterized as inhumane.
The expansion at Dilley reflects the broader growth of ICE’s detention network, which has nearly doubled in size since the start of the Trump administration. But family detention, particularly of young children, raises distinct concerns that data alone cannot capture.
“Family” detention center. WTAF. This is not Family fun at Disney. It’s a concentration camp. No one should be there. This administration is sick absolutely sick.
I think we need to start using real words that describe these institutions - concentration camps. And soon, with outbreaks, they will turn into death camps. I am still shocked that people go about their daily lives while fully aware of concentration camps in the U.S. I guess people have decentisied having the largest imprisoned population in the US in the world.