NEW: ICE Confiscates Children's Letters at Dilley Concentration Camp. I've filed a FOIA Request to Get Them

ProPublica recently published heart-wrenching letters from children at Dilley. ICE then raided the dormitories to confiscate and destroy those letters. I've filed a Freedom of Information Act Request.

From ProPublica:

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.

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.

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 yesterday, 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.”

This is unconscionable.

I have filed a Freedom of Information Act request for those letters confiscated from the children by ICE.

My request reads:

On 17 February 2026, journalist Pablo Maníquez reported, “UPDATE: 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.” On behalf of MSW Media, Inc. (”MSW Media”), I request 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 (and specifically NOT the date this request was submitted). Please release all records in electronic form.

For the same reasons that MSW Media is entitled to a public interest fee waiver, it is entitled to expedited processing. There is an urgent need, exemplified by the ProPublica story, to report on these letters, and ICE’s reported seizure to prohibit their disclosure is of significant public concern.

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~AG