"I Have Never Felt So Much Fear": Immigrant Children Speak Out on Life Inside ICE Jail in Dilley, TX

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A new ProPublica investigation reveals new details about a sprawling ICE detention complex where families describe horrific conditions inside, such as being served contaminated food, with children and parents at times finding worms in their meals. Lights are reportedly left on for 24 hours a day. South Texas Family Residential Center, in the town of Dilley a few dozen miles from the southern border with Mexico, detains an estimated 3,500 people, more than half of them children. "I have never felt so much fear to go to a place as I feel here. … Once I go back to Honduras, a lot of dangerous things could happen to my mom and I," a 14-year-old detained at Dilley, Ariana Velasquez, told ProPublica. There are also mounting reports of psychological abuse by guards, some of whom have allegedly threatened families with separation. "Many of the children who are now being sent there are being arrested by ICE around the country, and some of them, like Ariana, have been living [in the U.S.] for years," says Mica Rosenberg, investigative reporter at ProPublica.

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