Over 1,500 detained immigrants hold a protest at South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, Texas.
On Jan 24, about 1,500 immigrants (80% of the population) protested at South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley behind the prison walls, demanding “Libertad para los niños!” and “Let us Out, Let us Out!” Screams of children from the inside could be heard outside of the walls
Montoya Sanchez, a 31-year-old in Dilley said the protest was organized internally by the families exhausted by the long detention and conditions that advocates say have included food with worms, constant illness and insufficient medical access.
Immigration attorneys who were present to leave, saying “an incident” had taken place. Immigration attorney Eric Lee, who was among those forced to leave, said he could hear shouting that sounded “high-pitched” and “urgent,” indicating that he believed there were “hundreds of children” taking part in the uprising.
Lee later said his clients told him the protest began in response to the treatment of Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old from Minnesota who was abducted, along with his father and transferred to Dilley shortly after. That immigrants detained were also responding to hearing about the massive protests in Minneapolis.
On Jan 20th, 5-year old Liam Conejo Ramos was accosted by ICE pigs shortly after arriving home from preschool, They used him as bait by forcing him to knock on the door to try and lure out his dad. Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the deplorable pigs to let them take care of Liam, but they were refused.
After hearing the demonstration, attorney Lee stated:
“That children and their parents would risk retribution under these conditions to speak up is a testament both to how courageous they are and how abysmal the conditions of this place is,”
Immigrants in detention are in literal death camps meant to repress their existence and despite the consequences they are protesting to be freed; they are facing life or death. Small children are yelling for their liberation from concentration camps in Texas, we must heed their call.
If we are serious about ending ICE terror, we have to fight until we materialize their demands, to ensure their release from cages and an end to the death camps.
DETENTION CENTERS ARE DEATH CAMPS DESIGNED TO TORTURE, TERRORIZE, AND FORCE IMMIGRANTS TO “SELF-DEPORT”
32 people died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in 2025 making it the deadliest year at the hands of killer feds in over two decades.
As of December 13, 2025, a record 68,442 people were officially held in one of 216 ICE detention centers across the country. This number is up from the previous high of 65,735 on November 30, 2025.
A 2024 report by Physicians for Human Rights examined 52 deaths in ICE custody from 2017 to 2021 and found that 95 percent were preventable or possibly preventable if appropriate medical care had been provided.
Immigrants are sent to their death and suffering simply for being an immigrant under the American Nightmare.
Under an immigration system where the choices are for people to endure cruelty behind bars in hopes that they can secure their papers by gambling on a crooked bureaucratic system or for people to make the decision to self deport back to their country where suffering, brutality, poverty, and death is also a real threat.
At least six immigrants have died just this month in federal immigration detention
Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, was killed in ICE custody on Jan. 3 at Camp East Montana (Fort Bliss, TX). A witness told The Associated Press last week that Campos was handcuffed as at least five guards held him down and one put an arm around his neck and squeezed until he was unconscious.
The autopsy report by the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office found the cause of death was homicide, asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. His death was one of at least three reported in little more than a month at Camp East Montana. Immigrants there housed in tent structures in the extreme El Paso heat which was built on a former Japanese internment camp.
On January 14, Victor Manuel Diaz, a 34-year-old was was found “unconscious and unresponsive” in his room. While ICE noted that “the official cause of death remains under investigation,” they labeled the incident a “presumed suicide.”
Unlike with the two prior deaths, Diaz’s body wasn’t sent to the county medical examiner in El Paso.
McLaughlin said Wednesday that the autopsy for Diaz is being performed at William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss. Diaz’s family told ABC News they do not believe he took his own life and are calling for a full investigation.
Across the country, immigrants are suffering in detention centers. ICE pigs are the criminals! They are getting away with abduction, torture, neglect, and murder.
On January 5th, 42-year Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres died in a hospital in Conroe, after being admitted on December 23, 2025, “for complications related to congenital heart failure.” ICE kidnapped him on November 17th in Houston and put him in the two different facilities within a week (Montgomery ICE Processing Center and Joe Corley ICE Processing Center).
On January 6th, 68-year old Luis Beltrán Yanez-Cruz died on January 6th after being taken to El Centro Regional Medical Center on Jan. 4 for chest pain and transferred by helicopter to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio because he needed a higher level of care. It says he was admitted there for “heart-related health issues,” but it does not indicate the cause of his death.
His daughter said “There needs to be an investigation because this is not normal,”. “He started having symptoms weeks ago; they could have done something.” ICE only informed Yanez-Cruz’s family after he had already died. She said she tried to call the facility but couldn’t get information until the next day when they called to tell her he died during the early morning hours. She said she wishes the agency had told her when he was hospitalized so she could’ve said goodbye.
On January 8th, 46-year old Parady La died after receiving “treatment for severe drug withdrawal at the Federal Detention Center”. La was found unresponsive in his cell and was later pronounced dead of brain and organ failure.
His nephew, Michael La, says the family was told that Parady La was in a general population with dozens of other people in ICE custody and that he had been “vomiting, begging for help, begging for water, and wasn’t given water” while detained.
DHS claims federal officers administered CPR and naloxone, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses, not withdrawal symptoms. The family is also questioning why Narcan was used on La, who they say was experiencing withdrawal. Narcan is typically used for overdoses.
On January 14th, 34 year-old Heber Sanchez Domínguez was reportedly discovered “hanging by the neck and unresponsive in his sleeping quarters”.
Sanchez was in ICE custody for only six days and was awaiting a hearing at the time of his death. ICE has not yet responded to inquiries regarding whether the death is being investigated as a suicide or a homicide.
Immigrants in Dilley are leading the way forward, we must raise up their demands, and build up a mass movement with their liberation as a central part of our fight.
ICE pigs and the ruling class continue to ramp up their brutal kidnapping campaign of immigrants, continued repression of immigrants and those who get in the way of their terror so they can throw immigrants into deaths camps or send people back to their country where they continue to suffer.
Until this entire system is overturned, we must fight to end the suffering of immigrants and children in death camps and build a movement dedicated to and led by immigrants especially the people facing the worst conditions imaginable.
Dare to Struggle 