SAN ANTONIO – Multiple Democratic lawmakers, including San Antonio-area U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, are expected to visit the South Texas Family Residential Center on Monday in Dilley.
After the visit, Castro and fellow representatives will share what they witnessed during an afternoon news conference in San Antonio.
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The news conference, which is scheduled for 3 p.m., will be livestreamed in this article. Delays are possible. If there is not a livestream available, please check back at a later time.
The 3 p.m. event is being held in conjunction with criminal justice reform organization FWD.us and Families Belong Together, a campaign to “permanently end family separation and detention” as well as reuniting separated families, per its website.
The other House Democrats attending the news conference are:
- Julia Brownley (California)
- Katherine Clark (Massachusetts)
- Madeleine Dean (Pennsylvania)
- Sara Jacobs (California)
Background
On Jan. 28, Castro was among several Texas lawmakers who visited the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dilley when he called for the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from the family detention facility.
Ramos and his father were released from the facility on Feb. 1. A measles outbreak was reported at the ICE facility on the same day.
In the days and weeks since, Castro has described the Dilley facility as a “trailer prison” due to the families who are “housed in these trailers.”
On Feb. 20, the congressman raised alarms again after another visit to the facility. Castro said the children told him they still are not receiving adequate food and are being denied medical care.
According to Castro, conditions have not improved since then, and no schooling is being provided to children.
“These kids are despondent. They’re depressed. They’re languishing,” Castro said on Feb. 20. “There’s a brutality behind closed doors, behind the walls of these prisons, and people don’t see that. And that brutality is also very disturbing. And I don’t believe that most Americans would support it.”
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