On January 24, families detained inside ICE's South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley held signs reading "Libertad para los niños" — liberty for the kids. Behind chain-link fences, children and their parents chanted "Let us out" while attorneys were abruptly ordered to leave the facility. The families inside had learned about the massive demonstrations in Minneapolis after Alex Pretti's killing, and they wanted to join the growing resistance against ICE's enforcement tactics.
This was not passive suffering. It was organized defiance — and it became a rallying cry connecting detained families, outside protesters, and communities across the country in a movement demanding an end to child detention.
The catalyst was five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos. On January 20, ICE agents detained Liam and his father in their Minneapolis driveway as the boy returned from preschool wearing a Spider-Man backpack and blue bunny hat. The viral image sparked national outrage. Liam was the fourth child from his school district taken by ICE in two weeks, and within days he was sent 1,300 miles to Dilley.
The number of children in ICE detention has jumped sixfold under the Trump administration — from around 25 per day to approximately 170, with some days reaching 400 or more. ProPublica's analysis found about 300 children at Dilley were held longer than the legal 20-day limit, with some families detained for eight months.
Children at Dilley described systematic neglect: food contaminated with worms and mold, difficulty obtaining bottled water for infant formula, guards yelling at parents for asking for an extra apple. Five-year-old twins have recurring nightmares and wake up screaming every night. A seven-year-old named Diana Crespo was detained in a hospital parking lot with her parents — they never made it inside to treat her nosebleed because ICE arrested them first.
These conditions triggered the January 24 protest. Immigration attorney Eric Lee was visiting clients when guards appeared distressed and ordered everyone out. Outside, he heard hundreds of children and women chanting. One detained mother told the Associated Press: "The message we want to send is for them to treat us with dignity and according to the law. We're immigrants, with children, not criminals." She and her nine-year-old daughter had been held at Dilley since October.
ICE responded with retaliation. The facility went on lockdown. Guards burst into women's dormitories, stopped people mid-prayer, and rummaged through belongings searching for protest materials. An 18-year-old was separated from her family and denied visitation rights as punishment for speaking out. This crackdown on First Amendment rights inside a detention facility revealed how ICE operates: dissent is met with isolation and threats of family separation.
Outside Dilley, hundreds of protesters gathered from across Texas. Demonstrations continued through February as faith communities and immigrant rights organizations maintained pressure. On January 31, Federal Judge Fred Biery ordered Liam and his father released, calling their detention the product of "ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children." Texas Representative Joaquin Castro personally escorted them back to Minnesota.
Liam's release sparked celebration but also determination. At the welcome gathering, Luis Zuna held photographs of his 10-year-old daughter Elizabeth, still detained at Dilley with her mother after being arrested while driving to school. "It's the same situation as Liam, but there were no pictures," said a school employee. The children at Dilley understood their protest connected to the Minneapolis resistance when they saw news of the general strike and decided to act in solidarity.
The protests inside Dilley carry enormous risk. Children and families face potential separation or expedited deportation as retaliation. Yet they continue to speak out, writing letters describing their experiences and demanding freedom. Their courage demonstrates that resistance isn't only happening in streets — it's happening wherever people refuse to accept cruelty as normal.
For activists supporting this movement: Document conditions whenever possible, as firsthand accounts provide evidence that contradicts official narratives. Support legal defense funds and organizations like RAICES that provide representation to detained families. Pressure elected officials to defund ICE detention expansion — the administration plans to open 23 additional detention centers housing 80,000 more people. Attend local demonstrations to show detained families they're not forgotten. Build coalitions connecting immigration justice to broader struggles against state violence.
The movement sparked by children behind fences has exposed the infrastructure of mass detention that both parties have built and maintained. As detained families chant "libertad" and communities organize in solidarity, they're building toward a future where no child wears a Spider-Man backpack into a detention center.