Yassamin Ansari Visits Dilley Detention Center After Reports of Horrifying Conditions for Detained Children

Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) is in San Antonio, Texas, preparing for what she described as a gut-wrenching but necessary visit, an oversight trip to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the only immigration detention facility in the United States dedicated to holding families with children.

Ansari announced her arrival on social media, explaining that she would be joining fellow members of the Democratic Women's Caucus and Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-TX) for the visit. 

It will be her 12th oversight visit to an immigration detention facility, but her first at Dilley.

"The stories that have come out of there have been absolutely horrifying," Ansari said. "There are up to 2,400 people there, families including hundreds and hundreds of children."

The Dilley center is operated by CoreCivic, a private for-profit prison company. Ansari said she has visited other CoreCivic facilities, including the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona, and described CoreCivic as one of two major private prison companies making what she called "record profits off of this cruelty and inhumanity."

Neglecting Conditions

Additionally describing hearing consistent accounts from detainees at other facilities, lack of clean drinking water, medical neglect, staff abuse, and inadequate food, she said similar accounts have emerged from Dilley, but involving children.

The visit is part of a broader congressional push to shut the facility down. 

Castro is leading a group of 111 Democratic lawmakers in sending a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin calling for the center's closure. 

The letter described conditions parents have reported, including food allegedly contaminated with worms and mold, lights kept on through the night, and inadequate medical care that lawmakers say has contributed to severe depression and suicidal thoughts among children held there.

Ansari said visitors are not permitted to bring phones inside the facility, but she committed to sharing what she witnessed as soon as she was able. 

"I intend to talk to people if I can, see the conditions firsthand, and share exactly what we saw," she said.