BREAKING: EXCLUSIVE: ICE Seized Drawings from Children in Detention. I Sued, and Today I Got Them.

Five months ago, I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request for papers seized from children at the Dilley ICE Detention Center. Today, I got a heartbreaking response.

On February 9th ProPublica reported:

A rainbow, a family portrait, a heart. These are the drawings found in handwritten letters from children detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas.

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.

Three days later - during a House Homeland Security hearing, Rep. James Walkinshaw read some of the handwritten letters and shared drawings from the children held in ICE family detention — then questioned ICE acting director Todd Lyons about them.

Then on February 17th, Pablo Manríquez with Migrant Insider reported “Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children.”

That day, my lawyer Kel McClanahan at National Security Counselors filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding the letters seized from children by ICE. They did not respond, so in March, I filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of my podcast network MSW Media, Inc.

Today, ICE responded:

RE: MSW Media, Inc. v. ICE, 26-cv-01061
ICE FOIA Case Number 2026-ICFO-17498
ICE Litigation Case Number: 2026-ICLI-00039
First and Final Release

Dear Mr. McClanahan,

This is the first and final response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dated February 17. 2026, seeking:

Copies of all papers seized, confiscated, or otherwise collected from detainees at
the Dilley Immigration Processing Center between 9 February 2026 and the date
that the search for responsive records is conducted.

A search of the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) located records that are potentially responsive to your request. For this production ICE reviewed 91 pages of potentially responsive records. Upon review, ICE has determined that 9 pages will be released in part pursuant to Exemptions (b)(6), (b)(7)(C) and (b)(7)(E) of the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552 as described below. Further, 73 pages were deemed non-responsive, 9 pages were deemed duplicative. The 9 pages have been Bates numbered 2026-ICLI-00039 00001 through 2026-ICLI-00039 00009.

Here are the 9 pages I received

The first two are drawings that simply read “LIBERTAD.”

The next three are coloring pages that were given to the children, but then taken back after ProPublica’s reporting. Two are blank, and one appears to be colored in.

The next one appears to be chained clappy hands, or arms with bracelets with the word “AYUDA”, which means “HELP”. I’d be interested to know what you think is being depicted here besides the cry for help.

Followed by another cry for help.

Next is a Bluey coloring page that I assume was snatched out of a child’s hands while they were coloring. It’s only partially finished. This broke me. The absolute terror and cruelty is overwhelming.

And finally, is a letter from a 9 year old girl. It reads: “Hello, my name is ((D)16)(b(7/C). I am 9 years old. Can you help me get out of this jail? We are children, not criminals. We are 3 siblings, my mom and my dad. Please, a federal judge see this letter and help us. (b)(6), (b)(7)(C) (b)(6), (b)7)(C) We have been here for 47 days. (b)(6), (b)(7)(C) Leave us in your country, don’t deport us.” It includes a drawing of her family behind bars, followed by “LIBERTAD.” You’ll notice that the date she wrote at the top (they put the day before the month) is the same as the date it was snatched from her and entered into “evidence” per the stamp at the top right corner.

You’ll also notice that all the drawings with words have been entered into “evidence”, and have the “evidence” stamp on them. Evidence of what? What could drawings from children possible be evidence of?

I’d like to add that we are VERY skeptical of the government’s claims that of the 91 responsive documents, only 9 could be released. We are going to fight them on their claims of non-responsive and duplicative pages. They’ve earned no presumption of good faith here.

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