LOADING ERROR LOADING
The detainees at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, the largest detention center in the U.S. for children and families, describe nightmarish conditions: moldy food, contaminated drinking water and limited medical care.
In a letter sent to ProPublica, one child says the only medical advice they get from the doctors is to drink more water. “The worst thing is that it seems the water is what makes people sick here,” he wrote.
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At least two cases of measles, a highly contagious and often deadly disease, have been detected in the facility, leading officials to lock down the jail.
“They are literally being treated as prisoners,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said in a livestreamed video after visiting the facility. “This is a monstrous machine.”
But for many parents, keeping their kids in Dilley is preferable to the alternative: staying in detention — and possibly being deported — without them.
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“You’re putting people into an impossible choice,” said Chris Godshall-Bennett, a Washington, D.C.-based civil and prisoner rights lawyer. “They can pursue the freedom of their children at the cost of their separation.”
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