The Dilley Immigration Processing Center shows signs of being “under new management” — including leaning further into secrecy — after the Department of Homeland Security’s recent leadership shakeup, U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar said Wednesday.
Speaking with media following their visit to the family detention center an hour southwest of San Antonio, the Democratic congressmen painted a picture of how conditions have changed inside the facility since the ouster of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her replacement by Markwayne Mullin.
For one, Dilley’s population has increased again since the Current reported on a sharp decline in March, the two San Antonio congressmen said.
In late March, the detention center’s population dropped to 100 detainees from 1,100 in January, according to data obtained by ProPublica. As of today, the population has risen to 339 individuals, including 77 children, according to Zaira Garcia, a representative of immigration reform group Fwd.us.
‘Same cruelty, more secrecy‘
Further, Castro says the facility operates more opaquely under its new D.C. leadership.
“When we got there, the folks at ICE pulled out scripts that they had been commanded to read by ICE leadership in Washington D.C.,” Castro said, adding that there was a “creepiness” to the new procedures, which now prevent staff from speaking freely.
“It’s the same cruelty, but there’s more secrecy now,” Castro said, noting that in each room the congressmen toured, staff read from prepared “scripts of propaganda.”
Staffers also were unauthorized to answer questions directly, instead saying the inquiries would need to be submitted in writing and passed along to D.C., the congressman added.
Castro said Immigration and Customs Enforcement also sent staff from D.C. to monitor Wednesday’s visit, though he didn’t provide further details.
Following a March 10 tour of the Dilley site by a congressional delegation representing districts nationwide, those same House members had harsh criticism for the fledgling education program at the nearly year-old facility. At the time, the camp only had one teacher on staff.
The education program now has five personnel, Castro and Casar said, but only two of them are certified to teach.
Horror stories
Medical issues also persist at the facility, according to stories relayed by Castro and Casar.
Castro detailed the case of a 5-year-old girl who’s suffered from cavities in her teeth for months without treatment. The congressman said that after he complained to staff during a February visit, she’s only been prescribed Ibuprofen since.
Others suffering from acute tooth pain just have teeth extracted, Castro said, adding that for someone to get dental work — other than extraction — at Dilley, they must detained at the facility for more a year.
Another boy had blood in his stool and was merely given laxatives, Castro added.
In addition to a lack of medical treatment, detainees complained to the congressmen of cruel treatment by guards. One guard in particular called detainees racial slurs, Castro said, adding that he will reach out to ICE and CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates the Dilley facility, to inquire about the incident.
Castro also spoke of a boy and his father from San Antonio, who have been detained at Dilley since an early morning raid on their home. The man told Castro that ICE officers arrested him then led him into his son’s bedroom.
“When the boy woke up at 4:30 in the morning, he woke up to being surrounded by ICE officers all over his room and seeing his father handcuffed,” Castro said.
The father, Ricardo, was a cook at Bill Miller Bar-B-Q, and his 10-year-old son attended Thousand Oaks Middle School. Both, originally from Venezuela, had temporary protected status, Castro added. They aren’t the only people detained in the facility who are legally allowed to be in the United States, the congressmen said.
“We’ve been told that this is just about undocumented immigrants and recent immigrants in this country. That’s also not true,” Casar said. “Congressman Castro and I spoke to a legal permanent resident who was coming back to the United States after leaving for vacation and now has been locked up for six months.”
Castro’s tour
Castro has spent the week touring various federal immigration detention sites, including a Monday visit to Compass Connections, a lockup for unaccompanied minors in San Antonio.
A San Antonio boy rounded up with 140 others in a headline-grabbing November raid at a Basse Road food truck park has been detained in Compass Connections for five months, “even though his mother lives just a couple miles away,” Castro said.
Castro and his staffers inspected a San Benito facility on Tuesday where pregnant underage girls are detained. Although the congressman wasn’t allowed to speak directly to the mothers, he said some are as young as 13.
Wednesday’s tour of Dilley marks Castro’s fourth visit to family trailer prison this year.
“This visit was unlike any I have been to before at Dilley,” Castro said. “In many ways, worse.”
Despite changes trickling down from the top, the two congressmen asserted that the cruelty of jailing children remains unchanged.
“This is a travesty, this is a national scandal, and it should shake all of our consciences,” Casar said.
Sign Up for SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
