Some 300 protesters convened Wednesday outside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley to demand the release of 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy Liam Conejo Ramos, who’s being held at the facility along with his father.
A majority of the demonstrators held a rally at Dilley’s Watermelon Park before marching four miles to the detention center, where they met up with with the remainder of the group.
The protest remained peaceful throughout the afternoon, and a large group had already begun boarding busses to return to San Antonio and other cities when a school bus carrying Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrived. The DPS personnel were equipped with riot gear, including shields and helmets.
Although several witnesses told the Current that roughly two-thirds of the protesters had already left the site, DPS troopers teargassed the remaining 70 or so at around 3 p.m. Members of the media and elderly people who attended the protest were both left gagging from the fumes.
All protesters and media members vacated the grounds of the detention center shortly thereafter. At least two people were reportedly taken into custody.
Here’s everything we saw in Dilley.
