McAllen, Texas – Children being shoved aside by adults to reach drinking water. A toddler with diarrhea who was given only tap water for days. A boy with swollen feet denied a medical examination. The scenes playing out in Texas family detention centers are disturbing – and now they are at the heart of a lawsuit filed by human rights organizations against the administration of President Donald Trump. The allegation: systematic disregard for the so-called Flores Settlement Agreement, a protective measure from the 1990s that mandates safe and sanitary detention conditions for migrant children. The testimonies of affected families are part of a motion filed Friday evening by the National Center for Youth Law, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, RAICES, and Children’s Rights with a federal court in California. The background: The Trump administration seeks to terminate the Flores Agreement in order to detain families indefinitely – supported by a new legislative package misleadingly titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which includes tax cuts and spending reductions, but also allocates 45 billion dollars for expanding immigration detention.
What is currently happening in the facilities in Dilley and Karnes – both recently reopened family detention centers in Texas – had not been publicly known for some time. But access to these centers is only possible due to the existing Flores Agreement: it allows independent monitors to speak with detainees, document conditions, and expose abuses. Without it, the organizations warn, oversight would come to an end. Already, 40 out of 90 families interviewed report medical concerns. One mother had to use tap water to prepare formula for her nine-month-old baby – the child suffered from diarrhea for three days. A 16-year-old girl described people literally falling over one another to get water: “They put out a little case of water – and everyone has to run. An adult even shoved my little sister out of the way.” Beyond the lack of water, it is especially the denial of medical care that shocks. A 12-year-old boy with a blood condition said his feet were so swollen he could barely walk – yet a doctor’s visit with further treatment was refused. One toddler lost eight pounds in a single month of detention. And a child with cancer missed a crucial medical appointment because his family was arrested after a court hearing – he is now showing early signs of relapse.
The situation is set to worsen. The government not only plans to expand detention but to do so on a massive scale: according to Children’s Rights, the Dilley facility currently holds about 300 people, though it is designed for over 2,400. Only two of five areas are currently open – a sign of the mass detention to come. Meanwhile, Trump’s chief immigration strategist Stephen Miller announced that roughly 3,000 arrests per day are now targeted – nearly five times more than at the beginning of Trump’s second term. While ICE is expanding its operations inside the country – including against individuals who already live in the U.S. and are merely attending hearings – corporations like GeoGroup are preparing for new contracts. In Leavenworth, Kansas, a former prison that once held Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly is set to be repurposed for migrant detention. At the same time, pediatricians like Dr. Marsha Griffin from the American Academy of Pediatrics are struggling to gain any access to the facilities. “What we are witnessing right now is an unimaginable violation of child protection standards,” reads a statement from the organization RAICES. And the plaintiffs’ motion puts it bluntly: “The plaintiffs did not settle for policy making – they settled for rulemaking.” The next hearing in the case is scheduled for mid-July. Until then, many children are left with only one thing: waiting. For water. For help. For humanity.
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