The Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas has already made the news several times in the last two weeks, first for the detention there of the boy Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old Ecuadorian arrested by ICE in Minneapolis, and then for a measles outbreak. Now the case of Amalia is known, a baby who was on the verge of dying, without medicine or supplementary food in the midst of a serious respiratory infection, according to a legal complaint.

First modification: 02/10/2026 - 01:26Last modification: 02/10/2026 - 01:33

The lawsuit that made her release possible on February 6 identifies her as Amalia. She is only a year and a half old and until that day she had been held for almost two months in an ICE migrant center in Texas. There she almost died, according to the lawyer who represents her.

Amalia, a Mexican citizen, daughter of Venezuelans, was detained with her parents on December 11 at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, in Texas, in the midst of the Donald Trump Government's attack to carry out the largest mass deportation in history.

While there, the little girl became ill on January 1, with fevers above 40 degrees Celsius, vomiting and difficulty breathing.

However, it was not until the 18th when she was transferred to a hospital, with a diagnosis of Covid-19 that plummeted her oxygen saturation levels, respiratory syncytial virus, viral bronchitis and pneumonia.

She remained hospitalized there for 10 days. By the time she was returned to Dilley, one of two family detention centers operating amid the US anti-immigration crackdown, she had lost 10% of her body weight.

Despite the seriousness of the condition, the center staff did not allow him to use the nebulizer, respiratory medications, or nutritional drinks indicated in the hospital to regain weight, according to the family's lawyer, Elora Mukherjee.

To make matters worse, when he returned to Dilley, the measles outbreak was already underway, forcing the confinement of several groups of migrants in a facility where there are 1,400 detainees, of which 400 are minors.

"Little Amalia should never have been detained. She almost died in Dilley," denounces Mukherjee, a statement that also appears in the lawsuit he filed to obtain her release.

Detained in ideal conditions?

Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHC), on which the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) depends, denied that the little girl had been denied medical treatment.

In a statement, he assured that Amalia received pediatric care as soon as she began to show symptoms and that she only returned to Dilley when the hospital where she was hospitalized issued her medical discharge.

She also assured that upon her return she was kept in a medical unit and that the treatment and prescribed medications were available to her.

"It is a long-standing practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes general, dental and mental health screening within 12 hours of arrival at each detention center," McLaughlin stated in the bulletin.

In addition, he added that detainees receive "a complete health evaluation within 14 days of their entry into custody or arrival at ICE, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care."

Days earlier, when consulted about the measles outbreak at the Dilley detention center, McLaughlin had assured that ICE provides what is probably “the best health care that these foreigners have received in their entire lives.”

But lawyer Mukherjee says that is not the case, and that hundreds of families with children held at Dilley do not have clean water, healthy food, educational opportunities or adequate medical care, and should be released.

Children: the count goes up

Amalia and her parents, who arrived in the United States in 2024 and plan to file an asylum application, left Dilley on February 6, but that does not mean their situation has been resolved.

Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old boy detained by ICE in Minneapolis while returning from preschool with his father, was released on a judge's orders on January 31, but still faces the prospect of deportation.

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According to a report from the Deportation Data Project, a platform that documents the official records of immigration agencies, between January and October 2025, 3,800 minors were placed in family detention, including babies aged one or two.

Most of them (2,600 children) were arrested in the middle of raids and not at the border, a practice that advocates for the rights of minors and immigrants in general question.

"This is not people arriving at the border right now. These are arrested people who live in the United States, who have permission to live in the United States. Now they are starting to re-interview people with refugee status. There is no longer any status that protects people," described Becky Wolozin, an attorney at the National Juvenile Law Center, in statements to 'The Guardian'.

With Reuters and local media

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