Calls to shut down the ICE jail known as the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas continue to grow following the detention and deportation of 5-year-old Liam Tadeo and his father Victor Martinez Nieto to Mexico. According to the family’s lawyer, Nieto had begged officers to let his son go as they were arrested on their way to soccer practice in Austin last week. Nieto wanted Liam released to his mother, but ICE reportedly refused. The arrest happened just days before Liam was set to start kindergarten.
Texas Democratic Congressmember Joaquin Castro previously attempted to visit Liam and his father at Dilley but was denied by ICE. Last month, Castro led a group of more than 110 Democratic House members in a nationwide call to end family detention and shut down Dilley. “You have kids as young as 2 months old who have been in prison there,” says Castro. “And every child that’s put in there — every woman, every person — there are American investors who are making money off of their imprisonment.”
Castro notes that children are not supposed to be held in detention centers for more than 20 days. “I’ve met with kids who have been there three months, seven months, 10 months. And so, this is really abusive, and it’s traumatizing a lot of kids.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.