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Detained children's seized letters partially released after FOIA lawsuit against ICE

Feb 9, 2026·Location: Dilley, TX

Detained children's seized letters partially released after FOIA lawsuit against ICE
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Staff at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley raided dormitories in February to confiscate and destroy letters and drawings from detained children describing conditions inside the facility, after a ProPublica article detailed the children's accounts. A journalist's outlet, MSW Media, filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the seized materials and later sued ICE in federal court when the agency did not respond. In August, ICE released nine pages of the children's letters and drawings, citing privacy and law enforcement exemptions to withhold the remainder of the records it reviewed. At the time of the raids, many detained children had exceeded the 20-day maximum stay set by the Flores Settlement Agreement.

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