How a Planned Disney World Vacation Turned Into Four Months in Immigration Detention
A 9-year-old shares her story of being held at the nationβs only operating detention center for immigrant families in Dilley, Texas.
I met Maria Antonia inside Dilley in mid-Jan where she had been detained for four months. She told me she was on her way to Disney World when immigration agents intercepted and interrogated her in the airport and sent her and her mom to detention www.propublica.org/article/ice-...
14.02.2026 12:44 β
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π½οΈ WATCH: We went inside the immigrant family detention center in Dilley, Texas.
Listen to what kids told reporter @micarosenberg.bsky.social about their life in detention β and the things theyβve lost and left behind.
Read more: https://propub.li/4toqME6
13.02.2026 02:02 β
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Letters from some of the children I spoke to at the Dilley family detention centers being read in Congress
12.02.2026 17:30 β
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DHS, which oversees ICE, said βno one is denied medical careβ at the facility and detained parents have the option to be deported together. CoreCivic, which operates Dilley, said that health and safety is top priority and that medical staff met βthe highest standards of careβ 9/
09.02.2026 11:21 β
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My research colleague Gabriel Sandoval obtained 911 logs from Dilley that had calls about toddlers having trouble breathing, a pregnant woman passing out and a girl with seizures. Three calls were about alleged sexual assault between detainees. 8/
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Moms told me there were children in Dilley who were so distraught they cut themselves or talked about suicide. Kids lost their appetites after finding worms in their food and were constantly sick. Recently, there were also measles cases at the center. 7/
09.02.2026 11:21 β
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9-year-old Maria Antonia Guerra from Colombia was detained on her way to Disney World. She told me when I met her that what was supposed to be a 10-day dream vacation to the parkβs Halloween celebration turned into a 100+ day nightmare at Dilley. 6/
09.02.2026 11:21 β
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While a long-standing legal settlement generally limits the time children can be held in immigration detention to 20 days, the Trump administration kept hundreds of kids at Dilley for more than a month, @jeffernsthausen.bsky.social found 5/
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Remember Liam Conejo, whose bunny hat photo went viral? He was released from Dilley, but he is only one of the many children who have been sent there. My colleague @jeffernsthausen.bsky.social found 3,550 detainees, more than half of them minors, cycled through the center under Trump 4/
09.02.2026 11:21 β
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I met 14-year-old Ariana from Honduras, who was released into the U.S. with her mom during the first Trump administration when she was 7. She was a freshman in high school when she was detained in December and separated from her two siblings, who are U.S. citizens 3/
09.02.2026 11:21 β
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Trump restarted family detention, but itβs different now. Before, the family facility in Dilley, Texas, primarily housed recent border crossers. Now, parents and children who have been living for years in the United States are being detained there. 2/
09.02.2026 11:21 β
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This is 18-mo-old Amalia waving to me when she was detained.
She was hospitalized with a respiratory infection while at ICEβs Dilley facility for immigrant families.
Sheβs one of dozens of detainees who I spoke to via video and phone calls, letters and an in-person visit. π§΅1/
09.02.2026 11:21 β
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ICYMI another must read by my colleagues
09.02.2026 02:33 β
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Opinion | I Was Arrested for Doing My Job as a Reporter. Whoβs Next?
Important read: I Was Arrested for Doing My Job as a Reporter. Whoβs Next? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/o... via @NYTOpinion
09.02.2026 02:05 β
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YouTube video by ProPublica
What Really Happened When USAID Was Cut
An informative and devastating video about the incredible reporting by my @propublica.org colleagues on the deadly consequences of the dismantling of USAID youtu.be/G7TeKNU_Dps?... via
@YouTube
06.02.2026 21:18 β
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Iβve been in Minneapolis the last few days reporting on the ICE raids happening across the city. This morning federal agents shot and killed a man, identified by the AP as Alex Pretti. This marks the third shooting by federal agents since Operation Metro Surge started in Minnesota last month.
24.01.2026 22:37 β
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Deported to a country you've never heard of
Podcast Episode Β· Today, Explained Β· 01/07/2026 Β· 26m
Don't miss @propublica.org's @micarosenberg.bsky.social on @vox.com's Today Explained podcast discussing 3rd country deportations under the Trump administration podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
12.01.2026 15:47 β
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We at ProPublica obtained internal government data in May that showed the Trump administration knew the vast majority of Venezuelans sent to El Salvador had not been convicted of violent crimes. Our reporting is featured in Frontline. Read our full coverage: www.propublica.org/series/depor...
23.12.2025 01:41 β
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The Data Doesnβt Lie: How ProPublica Reports the Truth in an Era of False Claims
As federal data becomes less available, our journalists are doing shoe-leather reporting to provide readers with the precise numbers.
From our editor-in-chief highlighting our reporting from
@propublica.org that takes a hard look at the actual numbers behind the administration's immigration enforcement actions, which do not line up with the government's claims about them ... www.propublica.org/article/prop...
08.12.2025 14:31 β
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Sick in a Hospital Town: As Phoebe Memorial Grew, the Health of Albany, Georgia, Declined
The five-part series, βSick in a Hospital Town,β pursues one question: Why are people in Albany so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?
Welcome to Albany, Georgia, where one hospital dominates the political and economic landscape.
The story of Phoebe Putney Memorial is the story of American health care.
By @gingerthompson.bsky.social, with research by Doris Burke
08.12.2025 02:00 β
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The Trump administration said Biden was too lax in releasing hundreds of thousands of minors who showed up at the border alone and then losing track of them and some ended up in danger. It has launched a national effort to search for them around the country. 7/
24.11.2025 18:58 β
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