ICYMI: Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, Members of Congress Hold Press Conference Following Oversight Visit To Dilley ICE Detention Center

Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) joined Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) and members of the House Democratic Women's Caucus (DWC) at a press conference with FWD.US and Families Belong Together, following their visit to the Dilley Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Center. The oversight visit follows reports of inhumane treatment of children and families at the facility.

Congresswoman Fletcher's press conference remarks as delivered:

Thanks so much, Congresswoman Ansari, and I join you in thanks for Congressman Castro and his entire team that have welcomed all of us to San Antonio and taken us to Dilley today. I am from just down the road, I'm Lizzie Fletcher from Houston, and am really grateful for the opportunity to be here today to witness myself what is happening in the great state of Texas and in the United States of America. And every American really needs to know what we saw at Dilley today and what we are seeing happening unfold in streets across this country, and so I'm grateful to everyone who's here, who's sharing this information. I'm grateful to FWD.US for the incredible work that they're doing to make sure that people don't look away from what we are seeing happening, and both of my colleagues have used the word, that if I had to have one takeaway from today, and one word, it is trauma.

The United States government is traumatizing individuals that it has in detention. I spent a lot of time today talking with some of the adults who were there, because there are families as well as a group of women who are detained at Dilley, and I spoke with women who've been there for eight months, who were picked up off the street while they were coming home from exercising. They had no idea why they were being picked up. They had no idea where they were going, and they have very little, if any, contact with anyone outside. They don't know what's happening with their asylum case. They don't know how long they'll be there. They don't know what's going to happen to them when they get out, and they're not getting any answers. They're not getting any information, and they're not getting any help, except from the people who are working so hard to share their stories and make sure that Americans know that this cannot go on. It cannot go on in our names. And what we see is these individual cases of trauma for the children and the families. But this immigration enforcement regime, ICE, and the Trump Administration are creating trauma not only for individuals, but they are terrorizing our communities, and they are creating trauma across our communities. And that's certainly true at my home in Houston, where, as all of you know, we recently saw ICE pursue someone who was not the target of an investigation, in unmarked vehicles, with plainclothes officers, trying to stop Lorenzo Araujo and detain the three men who were with him in his van after they shot and killed him in the street.

People in Houston are outraged, but they're also traumatized. This is a national trauma, and that's why people need to know what's happening, and people need to speak up and speak out wherever they are because this is being done in our names. This is being done by the United States government, and I think for most Americans, it is unimaginable, but it is also something, as Congressman Castro said, that has been hidden. It's been hidden because we are not getting information. This Congress is not conducting the oversight that it should be. That's why I'm so grateful to Congressman Castro and to the DWC for making sure that we are doing the oversight work that the majority in Congress is refusing to do, and we need to make sure that people across the country know, as Congresswoman Ansari said, by definition, no one at Dilley has a criminal record.

Americans are being lied to about what this administration is doing, who it's detaining, what's happening when it takes them into detention. They're not being honest with the people about how, and why, and what they are doing, and it has to stop. It absolutely has to stop. The detention that we see in Dilley and the trauma that we see in our communities, it doesn't serve the interests of the American people. It doesn't meet our values and our aspirations for who we are. I know that this is not who we are, and we all need to stand up in this moment to stop it. So again, I'm grateful to be with all these incredible fighters who are here, including my friend, and classmate, and colleague, an incredible fighter here from Boston, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.

Texas holds the largest detained population of any state, averaging approximately 13,400 people per day in ICE custody as of mid-September 2025 across a rapidly expanding network of facilities. The ICE Detention Center in Dilley reopened in March 2025 after closing under the Biden Administration. Reports have revealed alarming conditions at Dilley, including poor food and water quality and serious health issues, including a measles outbreak and inadequate care for pregnant women.

Earlier this month, Congresswoman Fletcher joined 110 of her Democratic colleagues in an effort calling for the closure of the ICE Detention Center in Dilley. Since 2025, the Democratic Women's Caucus has sent six oversight letters to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calling out their mistreatment of pregnant detainees, insufficient healthcare accessibility, and violence against women.