‘I JUST WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE’: ICE IS DETAINING HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN
A promotional video by CoreCivic, a private prison company that runs Dilley, depicts a dormlike setting, with bunk beds, an outdoor playground, a volleyball court, a no-frills library and a pantry with animal crackers and other snacks.
Families describe a different reality: inadequate medical care, lights kept on all night, scant drinking water and little education.
The detention center is surrounded by barbed wire, and most families sleep in rooms shared with other families. Children often lose weight and get sick. Recently, there were two confirmed cases of measles. Some children have become suicidal and had panic attacks, families and lawyers say.
“There is a lot of desperation,” said Javier Hidalgo, a legal director with RAICES, who has visited the facility many times.
Christian Rubi, 16, said in a phone interview from Dilley that he has “a lot of anxiety attacks.”
“I start crying, shaking,” said Christian, who arrived in the United States from Mexico when he was 7 and had been living in San Antonio, where he was detained with his mother during a check-in with ICE. They have been held for more than four months. “I just want to get out of here,” he said. “It’s hell” …
