Texas Democrats detail troubling conditions inside ICE detention centers

Democratic members of Congress from Texas who have toured immigration detention facilities in the state say they have witnessed medical neglect, substandard food and other troubling conditions among detainees. Rep. Joaquin Castro has visited the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley seven times since the Trump administration reopened it last year, while El Paso Rep. Veronica Escobar has visited Camp East Montana, a tent complex at Fort Bliss, ten times since it opened a year ago.

Escobar described meeting a detainee arrested near Minneapolis who told her he had begged for medical attention for a broken forearm but received only aspirin and a brace; she said an examination showed the break had never been set or cast. ICE reported holding an average of 65,000 people daily last month, up from about 37,000 two years ago under the Biden administration, as detention numbers have grown under President Donald Trump's mass deportation push.

Camp East Montana, now the largest single detention facility in the country by daily population, has violated dozens of federal detention standards according to a federal inspection published earlier this year, and a separate June federal report found 'serious gaps in medical services' there. Members of Congress made more than 160 oversight visits to detention facilities in fiscal year 2025, a sharp increase from Trump's first term, according to Axios.

The Department of Homeland Security disputed the lawmakers' characterizations, saying detainees receive proper meals, quality water, blankets and medical treatment, and calling claims of substandard conditions false. Regarding the Minneapolis-area detainee, DHS said he was prescribed pain medication for what it described as a prior wrist injury and was later released after a judge's order, adding that ICE would continue seeking his removal.

Read the full story at Houston Public Media.