Texas state police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators gathered outside a US immigration detention facility in Dilley, as protesters demanded the release of a five-year-old Ecuadoran boy and other detainees swept up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Scores of activists converged on the South Texas Family Residential Center, holding placards accusing federal agents of terrorizing immigrant communities and calling for sweeping reforms to US immigration enforcement.
“We want Kristi Noem impeached. We want the US Senate to defund ICE, to not give it any more money. And we need people to pay attention to the midterm elections this year,” local elected official Christina Morales told journalists at the scene.
Texas law enforcement officers arrived in riot gear and deployed multiple tear gas canisters to break up the protest. One canister reportedly landed near two journalists, striking and temporarily incapacitating one of them.
Earlier in the day, Democratic lawmakers Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett visited the facility to inspect conditions and check on detainees, including five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and more than 1,100 others being held at the privately run center.
In a video message posted on X, Castro shared concerns about the child’s wellbeing.
“His dad said that he hasn’t been himself, and he’s been sleeping a lot because he’s been depressed and sad,” Castro said, adding that Ramos and his family were “legally in the United States.”
Public outrage erupted after images circulated online showing the frightened preschooler wearing a fluffy blue bunny hat and carrying his school backpack while being held by immigration officers in Minneapolis. Authorities had allegedly used the child to lure his father out of their home, according to the boy’s school superintendent, Zena Stenvik.
The child and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias — both asylum seekers — were detained in their driveway after returning home, a move critics described as deceptive and traumatic.
A federal judge has since issued a temporary block on their deportation.
Castro also called for the release of all detainees at the Dilley facility, disputing claims that the crackdown targets dangerous criminals.
“There are no criminals in Dilley,” he said. “Donald Trump said this was about arresting illegal criminal ‘aliens’ — that’s his language. There isn’t a single criminal over there.”
Immigration advocates say the incident highlights the human cost of aggressive enforcement policies, while urging lawmakers to intervene to protect families and children caught in the system.
