Yesterday we introduced you to Dilley — a facility ICE calls a processing center where families are often held for months, and most are deported. This week we are sharing stories of families we met there while volunteering with RAICES. Today, Roberto's story.
A father arrived at his scheduled ICE check-in with his four children — ages 12-17 — because ICE had specifically asked him to bring them. He wanted to comply. He did.
He and all four children were taken into custody on the spot and taken from their home state and detained in Texas.
Call him Roberto. The family has been in the US since 2022. In December 2024, an immigration judge granted Roberto protection from removal and dismissed all four children's cases entirely. The children were no longer in removal proceedings. There was no legal basis for their detention. They have now been held at Dilley for almost two weeks.
When Roberto was told he would be removed, ICE officers told him he would be separated from his children unless he agreed to removal to a third country. The paperwork was in English. Roberto does not read English. He asked to speak with an attorney — his request was denied. He signed documents he could not read, under coercion, because he did not want to be separated from his children.
Roberto and one of his children are gay. Removal to a Central American country is not safe for them. An immigration judge already recognized this — and granted Roberto protection. That protection is now being ignored.
The government's own judge said there was no basis to remove this family — the children's cases were dismissed. There is no legal authority to hold them. They are still in Dilley.
Tomorrow, we'll share the story of a mother who showed up to bring her young son home from government custody — and was arrested and detained with him for doing so.
Photo: Brenda Bazán / AP
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