Los Angeles, CA

Día de los Muertos altar dedicated to children that have died at ICE’s hands.

Altar del Día de los Muertos dedicado a los niños que han muerto a manos de ICE.

May their souls find peace.

Que sus almas encuentren la paz.

These are the drawings found in handwritten letters from children detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas.

In early February there were more than 750 families, nearly half of them including children, as well as some 370 single adult women being held at this facility. It is just one of many immigration centers across the country, but the only one holding families.

Since the start of the Trump administration, the number of children in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention has skyrocketed, increasing sixfold.

ProPublica received letters in mid-January from several children at Dilley. All but two of them had been living in the United States when they were detained.

In their words and drawings, they convey how much they ache for creature comforts and describe the anguish of being trapped. They write about missing their friends and teachers, falling behind at school, having unreliable access to medical care when they’re sick — some say they’re sick a lot — and feeling scared about what comes next.

The parents whose children participated were aware that the letters would be shared with a journalist with the intention of making them public.

If you don’t know who this little boy is, don’t scroll. Please listen.

This is Liam Conejo Ramos.

On January 20, 2026, Liam, a prekindergarten student at Valley View Elementary was approached by masked ICE agents as he returned home from school with his father. The ICE agents took Liam and his father away to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. According to their lawyer, the family emigrated to the US in 2024 from Ecuador and has an active asylum claim. Government records indicate their immigration court case was docketed on December 17, 2024. Liam Conejo Ramos was the fourth student at the Columbia Heights School District to be detained by ICE. Earlier the same day, a 17-year-old student was taken from his car by ICE agents.

Liam and his father have been released from Dilley Immigration Processing Center thanks to hundreds of thousands of people who organized for their release. However their journey is not over. A day after their release, POTUS released a statement saying they are seeking to expedite the deportation of Liam and his father, which would unlawfully separate them from Liam’s pregnant mother who is a legal resident of the United States. She has since had to go to the hospital for excessive bleeding due to stress which can induce a miscarriage.

Lawyer Danielle Molliver told Minnesota Public Radio this week that DHS had filed documents to expedite the father and son’s removal, speculating that the action was “retaliatory”. Molliver states, “It’s really frustrating as an attorney, because they keep throwing new obstacles in our way...There’s absolutely no reason that this should be expedited.”

This family has done nothing to warrant their removal and are legally residing in the United States under asylum. Please share and check out the links below to help Liam and his family.

GoFundMe for Liam’s Legal Team

GoFundMe for Liam’s Family