Legal brief alleges Trump admin routinely detains immigrant children illegally

Washington — The Department of Homeland Security is holding hundreds of immigrant children at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, for periods far exceeding the 20-day legal limit, with some detained for as long as 323 days, according to a new legal brief filed in federal court.

The brief, submitted July 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges ongoing and extreme violations of the Flores agreement. Established nearly 30 years ago, the agreement mandates that children may not be held in immigration detention for more than 20 days unless the facility is nonsecure and properly licensed.

Allegations of Abuse and Neglect

The filing includes firsthand accounts of abuse by guards at the Dilley facility, which is operated by private prison company CoreCivic. Testimonies describe:

• Denial of medical care for children
• Inadequate education services
• Guards screaming at children attempting to play
• Destruction of children's belongings, including tearing up drawings
• Physical shoving when children objected
• Repeatedly startling children awake during the night

In one incident, a male cleaning staff member repeatedly entered a women's bathroom while teenage girls were inside, naked and showering. When the girls' mother filed a grievance, officials forced the girls to undergo physical and mental examinations as retaliation.

A CoreCivic spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Discrepancies in Government Data

The brief comes shortly after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) published its 2026 annual report, which advocates say concealed the true number of children at Dilley and their length of detention. The report failed to disclose how many children were held for 20 days or more over the past year, instead providing monthly averages of daily population and average lengths of stay for children who had been released.

ICE previously stated that children detained in February and March spent an average of nearly 60 days in custody. However, the annual report listed average stays of 47.5 days for February and 40.2 days for March, and claimed an overall average of 27.4 days from June 1, 2025, through May 31, 2026. The brief notes that ICE offered no explanation for the discrepancy and that all reported averages exceed the Flores limit.

Site Visits Reveal Extended Detentions

Plaintiff site visits conducted in March, April, and June found children detained for significantly longer periods than ICE's averages suggest. Among the longest stays documented:

• 323 days
• 143 days
• 135 days

"During most site visits, the number of children experiencing exceptionally prolonged detention exceeded the number of families Plaintiffs' counsel were able to interview," the legal brief states.

Retaliation and Racist Abuse

The brief alleges that guards routinely abuse, neglect, and torment children at Dilley. First-person statements from children and parents describe ongoing retaliation for laughing and playing, as well as racist verbal abuse.

One parent reported that guards "laugh at us and tell us to call Trump when we ask about the rules." Another said guards told families not to complain about the food because "If they were in their own countries, they would be eating shit."

Contrast with Government Claims

The alleged abuse stands in stark contrast to the government's description of the Dilley facility, which it says provides "family sessions, group sessions, psychoeducation, parenting education, and therapeutic or wellness-related programming such as Zumba and crochet," along with activities including bead bracelet making, jewelry box construction, birdhouse building, yarn weaving, canvas painting, journaling, sports tournaments, relay races, hula hoop activities, tug-of-war, Zumba, karaoke, bingo, and chalk art.

However, the brief states that no family has ever reported receiving wellness-related programming "beyond brief check-ins," and that plaintiffs' counsel have "never witnessed evidence of Zumba or crochet on any facility tour."

When plaintiff's attorney and Children's Rights chief legal counsel Leecia Welch asked parents whether Dilley offered Zumba classes—as the facility regularly advertises on tours—she wrote that "they laughed."

Human rights advocates, attorneys, and doctors say no length of time in immigration detention is appropriate for children. The plaintiffs are suing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, alleging systematic violations of the Flores agreement.