A two-month-old boy with bronchitis was deported to Mexico with his mother and sister shortly after he was released from a hospital in Texas, where the family was detained inside a facility holding a growing number of immigrant families.
Juan Nicolas, who was the youngest person detained inside the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, was “rushed” to a hospital Monday night after roughly three weeks at the facility, according to Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro. Juan was “unresponsive” while hospitalized but was discharged hours after he arrived, the congressman said.
On Tuesday night, after an immigration court judge ordered the mother’s removal, the family was deported to Mexico and “abandoned” with only $190 they saved in a commissary account in ICE detention, according to Castro.
“To unnecessarily deport a sick baby and his entire family is heinous,” Castro said. “My staff and I are in contact with Juan’s family. We are laser-focused on tracking them down, holding ICE accountable for this monstrous action, demanding specific details on their whereabouts and wellbeing, and ensuring their safety.”
The family was able to book a hotel room, according to Univision reporter Lidia Terrazas, who tracked down the family in Mexico.
Juan’s mother, Mireya Lopez-Sanchez, told Univision that her son was “choking on his own vomit” and wasn’t moving while in the hospital.
“Even the officer was scared because he said: ‘he doesn’t move,’” said Lopez-Sanchez, who sought asylum in the U.S.
She said she feared ICE would retaliate against her son and deny him medicine for speaking out about his illness while she was still in detention.
“I have nothing, I need a house, I need a roof to sleep in or something, more than anything, attention for my children, because they are unprotected,” she told Univision.
“ICE detention centers are inhumane and deadly,” wrote Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez, who is co-sponsoring legislation to effectively end immigration detention under Homeland Security.
“Detention is a cruelty no one should endure — especially children and babies,” she said.
In a statement Tuesday night, a spokesperson for Homeland Security said the boy was taken to a local hospital in Pearsall for treatment of a respiratory infection but was not admitted.
Hospital staff determined he was stable and remained alert and responsive during the evaluation, according to Homeland Security.
Juan is among a growing number of children who have been held inside the remote detention center in Texas, a sprawling, fenced-in facility run by private prison firm CoreCivic roughly 70 miles south of San Antonio.
The federal government does not publicly disclose information about children in immigration custody, though data from advocacy groups, attorneys and investigative news organizations suggest that a growing number of those detainees are children.
At least 3,800 people under 18 years old, including 20 infants, were in immigration enforcement custody last year, according to The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization focused on criminal justice.
The number of pregnant, postpartum and nursing women in ICE custody is also unclear, though data from reporting, lawsuits and congressional reports suggest dozens were detained by immigration authorities within the last year.
That figure should be zero; ICE’s internal policy states that the agency “should not detain, arrest, or take into custody for an administrative violation of the immigration laws individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing” except in exceptional circumstances.
Last month, a federal judge in Minnesota rebuked the administration’s detention and transfer of a legally admitted refugee who was still breastfeeding her five-month-old.
“There is something particularly craven about transferring a nursing refugee mother out-of-state,” wrote District Judge Michael Davis, who said the mother “lost important bonding and nursing time with her baby” due to a detention he had already deemed illegal.
The Dilley compound first opened during Barack Obama’s administration to support the wave of families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, though Joe Biden’s administration stopped holding families at the facility in 2021.
Donald Trump’s administration reopened the facility as law enforcement agencies began pursuing immigrants with families who have spent years living in the country’s interior.
The detention center has come under heightened scrutiny after a measles outbreak, the detention of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, and the hospitalization of a two-year-old girl whose parents say was denied medicine as her health rapidly deteriorated inside the facility.
ICE confirmed at least two measles cases inside the Dilley center last month after lawyers representing immigrants inside raised alarms over the possibility of an outbreak and a wave of reported illnesses among children.
Detention center staff were also accused of failing to provide adequate medical care for a gravely ill 18-month-old girl who was hospitalized with life-threatening respiratory illnesses after ICE allegedly ignored her parents’ pleas for aid.
DHS has repeatedly defended its detention of children with immigrant parents and has urged families to “take control of their departure” from the United States with the CBP Home app.
“We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream,” outgoing deputy secretary Tricia McLaughlin previously told The Independent. “If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
