‘Don’t Forget About Us’: The Gut-Wrenching Letters from Kids in a Texas ICE Detention Center

In January, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) visited ICE’s Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the main facility for family detentions in Texas. Afterwards, he called it a “monstrous machine,” noting that among its 1,100 detainees was a 2-month-old infant. “They are literally being treated as prisoners,” he said.

On Monday, ProPublica published a devastating and gut-wrenching collection of letters and drawings from eight children currently or previously detained at Dilley—which is also where five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father were held for nearly two weeks.  “I haven’t feelt happy since I got here.” wrote 14-year-old Gaby M.M, who had been living in Houston when she was detained. She wrote her letter after being in custody for 14 days. Per ICE’s own guidelines, short-term detentions like hers should be no longer than 72 hours. (Before June, the guideline was 36 hours.)

“I haven’t been getthing the rigth education due to being in here,” Gaby continued. “I want to tell you guys how I feel and is hell like I really want to go the food is bad im tired of almots the same thing. I feel so much sadness and depression of not being able to leave, its really sad to hear that peoples cases are being denied and getting send back to their countrys.”

The letters were gathered by reporter Mica Rosenberg, who has spoken with dozens of detainees at Dilley since early December. According to ProPublica, most of the messages were written mid-January—meaning some of the kids were detained through the holidays. Rosenberg writes that the letters were collected by an unnamed detainee, and the parents agreed to allow their children to discuss, illustrate, or explain their experiences. When she asked what they missed most, many of them said teachers and friends at school, or pets, McDonald’s Happy Meals, or their favorite stuffed animals. “To this day, I don’t know what we did wrong to be detained,” one thirteen-year-old told Rosenberg over the phone. “I feel like I’ll never get out of here. I just ask that you don’t forget about us.” 

In another letter dated January 15, one 9-year-old said she is “not happy,” that she misses her friends, and that she worries that they’ll forget who she is. “I came on vacation for 10 days and they took me into an ice office,” she wrote, adding that she’d been in detention for 113 days after being detained. “An officer interrogated me 2 hours without my mom, I was traveling with flight attendant because my mom lives in new york, they only wanted to arrest my mom.” Speaking to Rosenberg separately, she said that she, her mom, and stepdad (a U.S. citizen) were planning to go to Disney for 10 days, and she had flown in from Colombia to meet them (her mother was living in New York and was waiting for a green card). Agents intercepted them and flew them to Texas.

In her letter, she wrote that when she first arrived, she cried every night. “I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family.” 

A little girl asked to go to Disney World. Her parents tried to take her – but ICE arrested them. Now she thinks it’s all her fault. https://t.co/a1b8lrIk5a

— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) February 9, 2026

According to a January report from the Marshall Project, the number of children detained by ICE has surged sixfold since Trump returned to office, with Dilley serving as the main family detention facility in Texas. The center is owned by CoreCivic, formerly known as CCA, one of the country’s largest for-profit prison companies—which has a history of paying millions in settlements over complaints about mistreatment and inmate deaths. Its facilities have also been the subject of sexual abuse allegations. In 2018, 46 lawmakers demanded an investigation into one of its facilities in Hutto, Texas, questioning whether it was complying with the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The company is now led by CEO Damon Hininger, who gleefully celebrated the One Big Beautiful Bill’s promise to further fund its operations.

“Hello my name is Mia Valentina Paz Faria,” one letter written reads. “I am 7 years old, I have been here for 70 days in this place, I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school, I miss my grandparents, I miss my friends, I don’t like the food here, I miss my school, I don’t like being here, I am bored here, I don’t feel so good in this place, I already want to leave this place, I miss my uncles, I hope to leave here soon.” 

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