The joint press conference began with remarks from Zaira Garcia, Regional Government Relations Director at FWD.us. “Everywhere we look, families and children are paying the price of this expansive immigration enforcement apparatus that is not making us safer. As this administration continues to seek more money for immigration enforcement, any additional money from Congress to ICE is simply a blank check to significantly expand detention beds to incarcerate more children and adults – perpetuating the well-documented harm of incarceration.”
Statements from the Members included:
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (TX-20): “Today, I met with the Uzategui-Labrador family at the Dilley trailer prison. The 5th and 2nd grader miss their father, teachers, and classmates. They are among the many children and families being locked away without proper access to medical care, food, and education. It’s cruel and inhumane to lock these children and families up. I am grateful to my Congressional colleagues for joining me today to see the trauma the Trump Administration is causing firsthand. Together, we will shut down Dilley and free our children.”
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (TX-29): “There is nothing humane about Dilley. Children are being held in jail while women with no criminal history are denied basic dignity, medical care, and hygiene products. Taxpayers are spending more than $1,000 per detainee every day for lies, neglect, and cruelty while private contractors profit from suffering. A jail is no place for children. This baby jail must be shut down.”
U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07): “From Arizona to Texas, we’re seeing the same pattern: inhumane treatment, neglect, and a complete disregard for basic human dignity inside private detention facilities. Families do not belong in detention. Children do not belong in detention. Yet at Dilley, CoreCivic is making $15 million a month to do exactly that. This is not just inhumane – it’s immoral, and it must end.”
U.S. Rep. Christian Menefee (TX-18): “I thank Congressman Joaquin Castro for leading this oversight visit and my House Democratic colleagues for standing together in this effort. Oversight is not optional. It is our constitutional duty and our legal right as Members of Congress. Let me be clear: this will not be my last visit. What I saw today was deeply disturbing. I witnessed heartbreaking conditions, heard painful firsthand accounts from families, and saw glaring contradictions between what officials told us and what detainees are actually enduring. That dishonesty is exactly why oversight matters. What Trump’s ICE is doing, through cruel enforcement tactics and the inhumane detention of families, is a stain on this country. I will keep coming back, keep speaking out, and keep fighting until this facility is shut down for good.”
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-01): “I came here today for one specific reason and one specific constituent. [But] I want to validate all of the things that my colleagues have been saying, and everything you’re hearing is true: We need to close Dilley, we need to close these facilities, there was nothing about the conditions that were humane—and it’s done with our tax dollars, in our name, and it has to stop,” Pingree said during the press conference.”
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (CA-39): “I believe that this is a shameful moment in our country’s history. My own parents were in Japanese American incarceration camps as small children. Many of the children and their parents at Dilley were obeying the law and showing up for their immigration court dates when they were detained. Life for those detained indefinitely here is hard. We heard stories from detainees suffering serious medical issues. I will not rest until ICE’s Dilley Detention Facility is shut down—living in detention behind barbed wire is no place for a child.”
The press conference focused on the brutality of ICE raids and called for greater oversight, a pause in additional hirings, and halting plans to expand detention facilities.
Click HERE for a recording of the press conference.
