Chris Walker: Immigrant Children Lead Uprising at Texas Detention Center 

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An uprising broke out at an immigrant jail in southern Texas on Saturday, with around 1,000 immigrants detained in the facility — many of them children — chanting “Libertad” and “Let us go,” according to an attorney who witnessed the event.

The protest took place at South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, which closed in 2024 but was reopened by the Trump administration this year to detain immigrant families.

On Saturday, facility personnel abruptly ordered immigration attorneys who were present to leave, saying “an incident” had taken place. Michigan-based immigration attorney Eric Lee, who was among those forced to leave, said he could hear shouting that sounded “high-pitched” and “urgent,” indicating that he believed there were “hundreds of children” taking part in the uprising.

Lee later said his clients told him the protest began in response to the treatment of Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old from Minnesota who was abducted, along with his father, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last week. The two were transferred to the jail, more than 1,300 miles from home, shortly after being detained.

School officials familiar with the incident say that an adult living in Liam’s home had begged for ICE agents to let Liam stay after his father was taken into custody.

“There was ample opportunity to be able to safely hand that child off to adults,” Mary Granlund, chair of the Columbia Heights School Board, said during a press conference last week.

School officials also said that Liam was used as “bait” by agents, in an attempt to get other people inside the house to exit willingly.

Aerial photos of the Texas facility during the protest, taken by The Associated Press, show parents and children holding signs that read, “Libertad para los niños,” or “Freedom for the kids.” Participants in the uprising also reportedly chanted “Libertad,” and “Let us go.”

“The message we want to send is for them to treat us with dignity and according to the law,” said Maria Alejandra Montoya Sanchez, a 31-year-old who is being detained in the jail, speaking to The AP after the protest. “We’re immigrants, with children, not criminals.”

Montoya Sanchez has been imprisoned at the facility with her 9-year-old daughter since October.

Lee posted several videos of the incident on social media. Within the videos, which were recorded outside the facility, shouting and chanting can be heard from inside the jail, seemingly from children.

In one video, Lee recorded what sounded like children screaming, after which a guard tells him he has to leave the area, despite being outside of the jail.

“This demonstration presently comprises of about 80 percent of the detained population, over 1,000 people. … Guards are trying to physically block people from protesting,” Lee said in another post, noting that gates within the facility had been closed to prevent the uprising from spreading.

According to Lee, demonstrators were moved to protest after hearing about Liam’s story. They were also motivated to act after hearing about the size of the general strike on Friday against federal immigration agents’ presence in Minnesota.

Lee described deplorable conditions at the facility, saying it is a “horrible, horrible place.” The drinking water is “putrid,” and the food served to families who are being detained contains “bugs,” dirt, and other contaminants, the lawyer said.

“The guards are just as tough as the guards at the adult facilities,” Lee said. “This is not a place that you would want to have your child be for even 15 minutes.”

“That children and their parents would risk retribution under these conditions to speak up is a testament both to how courageous they are and how abysmal the conditions of this place is,” Lee added.

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First published in ScheerPost.

Chris Walker is a news writer at Truthout, and is based out of Madison, Wisconsin.