Inside Family Detention with Javier Hidalgo and Faisal Al-Juburi from RAICES Texas
Join me on Tuesday October 7 at 1:00 pm Eastern for an in-depth conversation about the harsh realities of family detention and how immigrant rights organizations are fighting back.
This event already took place. Click below to listen to the audio of this conversation.
Family detention has returned as a central feature of immigration enforcement under the second Trump administration, with ICE detention facilities once again housing parents and children together in what advocates describe as jail-like conditions.
The ICE detention center in Dilley, Texas, now holds several hundred families in conditions that have come under fire in a new lawsuit at the same time that the Trump administration is seeking to end protections for children. Like the Women’s Refugee Commission’s project to document experiences of pregnant women detained by ICE, RAICES’s interviews inside family detention also find widespread reports of medical neglect and other concerns at facilities in Dilley and Karnes.
To understand what’s actually happening inside these facilities and how attorneys are pushing back against the new barrage of damaging policies, I wanted to hear from people doing the work on the ground. That’s why I invited Javier Hidalgo and Faisal Al-Juburi from RAICES Texas to talk about their work providing legal representation and advocacy for immigrant parents and children held in ICE’s revived and expanding family detention system. Together, Javier, the Legal Director for RAICES, and Faisal, the Chief External Affairs Officer, bring years of impactful experience advocating for social change.
We’ll discuss what family detention looks like right now from some of the only attorneys to provide legal representation for families at Dilley. We’ll hear from Javier and Faisal about how RAICES is also working to change the underlying systems behind family detention, challenge new policies in court, and share the stories of detained families in ways that preserve their dignity while highlighting injustice. We’ll also talk about what makes Texas a laboratory of experimental and controversial immigrant detention policies.
The virtual event will take place on Zoom on October 7, 2025 (Tuesday) at 1:00 PM Eastern US time. Registration is required at the link below.
Please bring your questions, comments, and insights to the table. These public conversations are intended to provide you with unique access to the leading thinkers, leaders, and movers of our current moment. In doing so, I aim to offer a productive and healthy alternative to the reactive and divisive politics prevalent in social and traditional media. So please join me for this conversation next Tuesday, and thank you to Javier and Faisal for agreeing to spend an hour with us.
About the Speakers
Javier Hidalgo specializes in asylum, civil rights, and complex litigation. In 2018, Javier joined the not-for-profit RAICES, the largest immigration legal services agency in Texas. As Legal Director, he oversees trauma-informed programs in support of individuals, family units, and unaccompanied children both in and recently released from government custody, as well as impact litigation in pursuit of positive systemic change in federal immigration policy. He came to RAICES following more than a decade of litigation experience as a paralegal and attorney in New York at midsize and multinational firms. A graduate of New York Law School (JD) and Swarthmore College (BA), Javier is admitted to practice law in the States of Texas and New York and the U.S. District Courts in the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.
Faisal Al-Juburi is the Chief External Affairs Officer at RAICES, the most expansive immigration legal services agency in Texas and a leading voice in the fight for the rights of immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking people and families nationally. A strategic partnerships specialist committed to advancing social justice through activist philanthropy and advocacy, Faisal has served the not-for-profit sector for two decades, positioning dynamic public and private partnerships that facilitate lasting social impact. His insights on immigration have been featured in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Associated Press, amongst others. A first-generation Iraqi American, Faisal is extensively trained in anti-oppression dialogue facilitation, and is featured as a social-change activist in Focus on Social Problems: A Contemporary Reader (Oxford University Press, Third Edition, Fall 2025).
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