{"id":450,"date":"2026-07-20T09:06:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=450"},"modified":"2026-07-20T09:06:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:06:51","slug":"trump-administration-routinely-violating-immigrant-childrens-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration Routinely Violating Immigrant Children\u2019s Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trump\u2019s Department of Homeland Security is imprisoning hundreds of immigrant children at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, for well over the legal limit of 20 days, including some for as many as 323 days, according to a .<\/p>\n

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The brief also offers more firsthand accounts of the abuse guards are inflicting on children in Dilley, run by private prison company CoreCivic, adding to the pile of evidence that Trump\u2019s mass deportation campaign is systematically traumatizing children as young as infants, in some cases causing them to regress developmentally. Testimonies included in the brief include instances of guards denying children medical care, providing inadequate education, constantly screaming at them when they attempt to play, and in some cases, attacking their physical well-being, like tearing up their drawings and then shoving them when they object and repeatedly startling them awake during the night.<\/p>\n

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In one instance, a male cleaning staff member repeatedly entered a women\u2019s bathroom when he knew teenage girls were inside, naked and showering. In that instance, the girls\u2019 mother submitted a grievance. But it was the girls who were the ones who paid for that complaint, as an official forced them to undergo a physical and mental examination.<\/p>\n

A CoreCivic spokesperson failed to respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs filed the brief on July 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. They allege ongoing and extreme violations of the Flores<\/em> agreement, which established almost 30 years ago that children may not be held in immigrant prison for more than 20 days unless the facility is nonsecure and licensed. Court filings have repeatedly claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is holding hundreds of children well beyond that. No length of time of imprisonment is appropriate for children, human rights advocates, attorneys, and doctors say.<\/p>\n

The brief comes shortly after ICE published its hiding exactly how many children are at Dilley and how long they have been there. The report failed to disclose how many children were detained for 20 days or more over the last year, instead giving various monthly averages of the daily population and various monthly average lengths of imprisonment for children who have been released.<\/p>\n

In May, ICE said children detained in February and March spent an average of almost 60 days in custody. In the annual report, however, it said the average length of stay was 47.5 days for February and 40.2 days for March. It claimed that the average length of stay from June 1, 2025, through May 31, 2026, was 27.4 days. ICE offered no explanation for the discrepancy, the brief says, and the plaintiffs also point out that any of those numbers exceed the number allowed under Flores<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Plaintiff site visits in March, April, and June found that some children were spending much more time in Dilley than ICE\u2019s inconsistent averages assert. Among the longest stays they counted were families who had been detained for 323, 143, and 135 days. \u201cDuring most site visits, the number of children experiencing exceptionally prolonged detention exceeded the number of families Plaintiffs\u2019 counsel were able to interview,\u201d the legal brief states.<\/p>\n

Guards routinely abuse, neglect, and torment children at Dilley, the brief claims. In numerous first-person statements, children and parents describe ongoing retaliation for laughing and playing, as well as guards hurling racist abuse at them. One parent said guards \u201claugh at us and tell us to call Trump when we ask about the rules.\u201d Another said they shouldn\u2019t complain about the food because \u201cIf they were in their own countries, they would be eating shit.\u201d<\/p>\n

This ongoing abuse at the hands of guards contrasts with the government\u2019s claim that the Dilley facility provides \u201cfamily sessions, group sessions, psychoeducation, parenting education, and therapeutic or wellness-related programming such as Zumba and crochet,\u201d as well as activities that include \u201cbead bracelet making, jewelry box construction and decorating, birdhouse building, yarn weaving, crocheting, canvas painting, journaling, sports and game tournaments, relay races, hula hoop activities, tug-of-war, Zumba, karaoke, bingo, and chalk art.\u201d<\/p>\n

No family has ever reported receiving wellness-related programming \u201cbeyond brief check-ins,\u201d the brief states, \u201cand Plaintiffs\u2019 counsel have never witnessed evidence of Zumba or crochet on any facility tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, wrote plaintiff\u2019s attorney and Children\u2019s Rights chief legal counsel Leecia Welch, when she asked parents whether Dilley offered Zumba classes, as the facility regularly advertises on tours, \u201cthey laughed at the suggestion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents said the abuse goes beyond deception about the lives children lead inside Dilley.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSome of the guards are awful to the children. They are always screaming at kids for doing normal things like running at the park. If you\u2019re at a park with kids, what do you expect they are going to do?\u201d one parent said.<\/p>\n

Another parent reported that all children have to do is watch TV. \u201cThere are no toys in the rooms. One day, my son and the other kids living in our room were playing with a ball that they made from rolling up paper. The boys were just playing and having fun. As soon as the guard heard the boys laughing, she came in and said they had to stop. That\u2019s how it is here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some instances, parents said, guards have taken specific aim to hurt children physically as well as emotionally. In one instance, a parent said officials found out she had spoken with reporters, so guards forced the family into lockdown and took away all her daughter\u2019s coloring material. Later, one of the parent\u2019s daughters wrote the word \u201cliberty\u201d on a piece of paper. Guards found it, threw it away, and then sent her to speak to a counselor, who interrogated her and then \u201creported\u201d her.<\/p>\n

When she returned to her room, there were 12 officials inside conducting a search. They found her children\u2019s drawings and ripped them up, angering the older daughter. The interaction escalated when the older daughter confronted the guards and said not to rip up her favorite drawing of a telephone. This led one guard to push the older daughter, followed by all the guards in the room doing the same. \u201cThey pushed [my daughter] in the chest and grabbed her arm and she now has pain and bruises on her arm, and you can see swelling. They pushed me in my chest, too, and it still hurts,\u201d the mother said. She added that the guards pulled out a camera and \u201cstarted to record us and laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she went to a counselor for support, \u201cthe counselor told me that they would revise the cameras, but did not do anything else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Such physical harm is in addition to CoreCivic staff denying children medical attention or otherwise neglecting the safety of detainees, the brief claims, such as:<\/p>\n