Event comes after United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred five-year-old Liam Ramos of Minneapolis to its detention center in Dilley, south of San Antonio, last week.
Media Contact: John Henry, jhenry@childrensdefense.org, CDF Media Relations Manager, 708-646-7679
AUSTIN, TX—This morning, Children’s Defense Fund–Texas and the Immigrant Services Network of Austin will join with local faith leaders at Austin City Hall to hold a “Free Families” vigil calling on members of Congress to free families held in immigration detention.
The vigil follows weekend protests by children and families detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, south of San Antonio. Protesters were heard chanting “libertad” (or “freedom”) in response to federal agents sending five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father from Minneapolis to that facility. At 11 a.m. today, U.S. Representatives Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) and Joaquin Castro (TX-20) plan to conduct an oversight visit of the facility, followed by a press conference in San Antonio with Ramos’ attorney. A vigil outside the Dilley facility is also being organized by Texas-based advocates.
The vigil at Austin City Hall was organized as part of the National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention’s call for communities across the country to organize “Free Families” vigils in solidarity with detained immigrant families, the members of Congress seeking to conduct oversight, and people of faith and conscience in Texas and across the country who are calling for an end the cruel practice of family detention.
Free Families Solidarity Vigil
Austin City Hall
301 W 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701
Weds., January 28, 11 am
Since ICE reopened the Dilley facility in March 2025, families detained there have reported horrific conditions marked by medical neglect, hunger, and inadequate access to clean drinking water. Families are often pressured into accepting voluntary removal as a way out, without being informed of their legal rights or allowed to consult an attorney. Last year, 32 people died in ICE custody, making 2025 the deadliest year for immigration detention since 2004.
CDF–Texas Senior Administrator of Policy and Advocacy Trudy Taylor Smith, Esq., said immigration detention is particularly traumatizing for children, as it can take a serious toll on their physical and mental health while undermining their development.
“Children and parents detained at Dilley are suffering from hunger, lack of access to clean drinking water, and medical neglect,” says Trudy Taylor Smith, Esq., senior administrator of Policy and Advocacy, Children’s Defense Fund-Texas. “Their physical safety and psychological wellbeing are both compromised inside this prison, and they are also at risk of being removed to countries where their lives are in grave danger. Indefinite detention has interrupted children’s education and, in many cases, torn their families apart. Yet Dilley is not the only place where ICE is detaining children with their families, and the agency has plans to use taxpayer dollars to rapidly expand the number of families who are detained across the country. Now is the time for Congress to end this cruelty and protect children by passing legislation to end family detention, cutting off funding for ICE and CBP/Border Patrol, and exercising its oversight authority to address abuse, neglect, and dangerous conditions inside family detention facilities.”