Bugs in food and sickness haunt immigrants held in Texas

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A person holds a sign calling to protect, not detain, children as people gather during a demonstration and vigil outside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, on January 28, 2026. — AFP pic

DILLEY (US), Feb 8 — A detention centre in rural Texas has become a harsh symbol of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with disease breaking out among the throng of people held, including some families who entered the United States legally.

The Dilley Immigration Processing Center sits in a small town of just 3,200 people, just about 85 miles (135 kilometers) from the Mexico border, but has become a grim global melting pot.

Many detainees were picked up as their asylum claims were being processed or as they were checking in with authorities on their cases, lawyers told AFP, as Trump massively expands the scope of who can be targeted for detention and deportation.

“I cry all the time. My son tries to wipe the tear from my eyes,” said W, a Haitian woman who along with her son crossed the border legally to seek asylum, under a program run by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.

Historically, asylum seekers have generally been allowed to live and work in the United States while their claims work their way through the court system.

But W and her son were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and sent to Dilley in October, where W says authorities have tried to force her to sign a deportation order.

Her testimony, like that of others in this report, was taken by the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), a legal advocacy group, and shown to AFP. Many names have been fully or partially withheld.

Bugs in food 

Protests have erupted over bugs being found in the detention center’s food, W said, while lights are kept on 24 hours a day, making it difficult to sleep.

On Monday, Texas health authorities warned of two measles cases at the facility, prompting ICE to quarantine some people held there.

“These families have become a political pawn,” Javier Hidalgo, legal director at RAICES, told AFP.

“They were in a process. They had future court dates... there’s no purpose to (detention) other than trying to convince them to give up their legal cases.”

CoreCivic, the private company that the government contracts to run the facility, told AFP “the health and safety of those entrusted to our care is the (company’s) top priority.”

The Dilley center is the same facility that held Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old Ecuadoran boy who lawyers allege was detained as bait to lure his mother to agents.

Liam has since been ordered released, though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking to dismiss the family’s asylum claim—lodged after they entered the country legally in 2024 -- and deport them.

Family held over father’s arrest 

Also held at the facility is the family of Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who is accused of firebombing a protest in support of Israeli hostages last year in Colorado.

The Egyptian national told authorities that no one knew of his plans, CNN reported, but his wife and five children have been held at Dilley for months while the government claims it is “investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack.”

“Why would the government insist on detaining us with no evidence?” his daughter Habiba wrote in a letter shared by immigration attorney Eric Lee last month.

The family entered the country legally in 2022 and filed for asylum.

DHS has said the family is “in our country illegally” and is trying to deport them. None of the other family members has been charged with a crime.

Days after speaking to CNN, Habiba was separated from her family.

DHS told the broadcaster it was because she had turned 18 and needed to be moved to the adult section, though her birthday had passed months before without any action.

Alleged medical neglect 

Other detainees complain of medical neglect.

“One of the children had appendicitis last year, and it took days to get him medical care,” lawyer Chris Godshall-Bennett told AFP, adding that the child was told “to take a Tylenol and get over it.”

Diana, a Colombian woman, is detained with her 10-year-old daughter who suffers from Hirschsprung’s disease, which causes blocked bowels and can require a special diet.

But a doctor “told me that I needed to remember they are not there to accommodate me... that their only responsibility is to ensure that detainees do not go hungry,” she said.

CoreCivic said that its medical staff “meet the highest standards of care.”

“We will be detained for who knows how long,” Habiba Soliman wrote in her letter.

“We have been falling apart.” — AFP