An increasing number of parents and children are being held at the nations only immigration detention center specially designed to hold families. It is a reversal of a downward trend in population earlier this year.
Democratic members of Congress shared the latest numbers on Tuesday after a brief oversight visit to the privately run Dilley Immigration Processing Center located south of San Antonio, Texas.
ICE is holding 539 people now at Dilley, an increase of about 100 detainees since May, said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas. That includes 84 families, four pregnant women and 112 children. The youngest child in custody is two months old, said Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.
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Castro tied the spike in detainees sent to Dilley to more arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent weeks.
“Weve seen families that have been torn apart on the street, brutality on the street, Castor said. The result of that is that more families and more children are imprisoned at Dilley.
The families stay detained while waiting for deportation proceedings to play out.
During his seventh oversight visit to Dilley, Castro said he spoke to a woman unable to get follow-up health care after a heart procedure. He also said detainees were unaware of their rights and heard from children desperate to get out.
Every single day that a child spends in Dilley, they are traumatized, Castro said.
The continuing Scripps News ICE Inc. investigation has found the agency is holding children well beyond a 20-day limit set by a federal court despite many claims about lack of medical care, edible food and education. Children from one family spent 10 months detained at Dilley.
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The CoreCivic company says it earns $180 million a year running the lockup. Both the company and the Department of Homeland Security defend the treatment of families held there, repeatedly saying the facility meets national detention standards.
Adults with children are housed in facilities that provide for their safety, security, and medical needs, a DHS spokesperson told Scripps News in an emailed statement.
Castro and more than 100 other House Democrats signed a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin demanding the government shut down Dilley.
There is no humane way to imprison a child, the letter said.
DHS says parents arrested by ICE have a choice to either bring their children with them to detention, or leave them in the care of a guardian.