A San Antonio immigration attorney says a 9-year-old girl locked inside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley has told him she no longer wants to be alive after months in federal custody. Eric Lee says the girl’s phone calls and the drawings she and her siblings hand him during visits show a deepening despair as their confinement drags on. The younger children gave him pictures, including one of the house they miss and another of the family trapped inside a cage, which he says reveal how they are trying to cope inside the facility.
Lee says the family includes a mother, an 18-year-old daughter, a 16-year-old son, the 9-year-old and 5-year-old twins, and that they are Egyptian nationals who immigrated from Kuwait, according to the San Antonio Current. The family was taken into immigration custody after prosecutors charged Mohamed Soliman in a violent June attack in Boulder, where he now faces dozens of state counts and federal hate-crime charges, as detailed by the Washington Post. Lee told the Current that the 16-year-old collapsed with appendicitis and that the oldest daughter was separated from the rest of the family after she turned 18.
Families Protest; Advocates Point To Poor Conditions
Dozens of detained parents and children have held protests inside the Dilley center, chanting “Libertad” and demanding their release, according to AP News. Advocates and attorneys who visit the facility say detainees have complained of contaminated food, including reports of worms and mold, limited access to medical care and unsafe water, concerns Lee echoed in his interview with the Current. Those accounts have helped fuel a broader legal campaign in federal court that targets how immigrant families are being detained.
Judges To Weigh Habeas Petition Next
Lee told the Current that U.S. District Judge Fred Biery is set to consider the family’s third habeas petition, a move that could limit transfers or deportation while their case moves forward, according to the San Antonio Current. Judge Biery drew national attention last month when he ordered the release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from Dilley and sharply criticized the administration’s deportation tactics, as reported by PBS NewsHour. Legal advocates say habeas filings are one of the main tools families in detention have to seek immediate relief while their immigration cases play out.
How The Dilley Facility Reopened
The South Texas Family Residential Center reopened in 2025 under a contract that allowed private operator CoreCivic to restart family detention at the site, which can hold roughly 2,400 people, according to the Houston Chronicle. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about the family’s allegations, the Texas Tribune reported, leaving attorneys and some lawmakers to push for inspections and answers. The disputed reopening, combined with reports of substandard care, has turned Dilley into a flashpoint in the fight over family detention.
What To Watch
The family’s habeas petition is one of many driving a growing wave of court challenges. A ProPublica–Texas Tribune analysis shows habeas petitions filed by detained immigrants have climbed to historically high levels this year as lawyers push back on expanded detention policies. For now, Lee says his clients are despondent, and that a federal judge’s decision could determine whether they remain behind the fences in Dilley or are released to continue their asylum claims while living in the community.
