ICE held nearly 1,560 children past 20-day Flores limit at Dilley facility over six months; 13-year-old attempted suicide after care denied

On March 20, 2026, attorneys representing detained immigrant children filed court papers in Flores v. Bondi, the long-running federal case governing conditions for children in U.S. immigration custody, documenting that hundreds of children held at ICE's South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas were kept beyond the 20-day custody limit the Flores settlement sets. An ICE Juvenile Coordinator's report cited in the filings showed about 595 children held past the 20-day limit during December and January alone, with roughly 265 of them held more than 50 days and 55 held more than 100 days — a total that a follow-up filing would show climbing to nearly 1,560 children held past the limit over a six-month window. [1, 2, 3, 4]

The filings describe a 13-year-old girl at Dilley who attempted suicide by cutting her wrist after facility staff withheld her prescribed antidepressants and denied her request to be reunited with her mother. Discharge documents obtained by the Associated Press described a "suicide attempt by cutting of wrist" and "self-harm," even though the government's own records stated there had been "no placements on suicide watch." Attorneys also cited worms found in food and inadequate access to medical care and legal counsel, drawn from family accounts and from site visits by court-appointed Flores monitors.

The Flores settlement traces to a 1985 lawsuit that led to a 1997 consent decree setting nationwide minimum standards, including the 20-day custody cap, for children in immigration detention. The Trump administration has separately sought in court to terminate the settlement outright; a federal judge rejected that bid in August 2025, and the administration has appealed. Responding to the March 20 filings, the Department of Homeland Security called the Flores settlement "a tool of the left that is antithetical to the law" and said "being in detention is a choice," while continuing to dispute that conditions at Dilley are inadequate.

Updates

2026-07-15 — Plaintiffs documented 1,560 children held past 20-day limit over six months [4, 5]

More than three months after the March 20 filing, Flores co-counsel submitted a July 15, 2026 response to ICE's July 1, 2026 Juvenile Coordinator annual report, alleging "ongoing and extreme" violations of the Flores settlement at Dilley. The filing documented that nearly 1,560 children had been detained beyond the 20-day limit over the preceding six months, with individual children held as long as 323, 143, and 135 days, and flagged a discrepancy between ICE's reported average lengths of stay (47.5 days in February, 40.2 days in March) and separate May 2026 data showing averages near 60 days for those same months.

2026-08-12 — Analysis found 60+ children held over 100 days at Dilley; judge to appoint compliance monitor [6, 7]

A Texas Tribune analysis of federal government data found at least 60 children have been held by the Trump administration at Dilley for 100 days or more — far exceeding the Flores 20-day limit. One documented case: a 16-year-old Los Angeles student, identified in court documents only as S.M.H., whose family immigrated from Iran; ICE arrested and separated the family in April 2026 after Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered their permanent legal status revoked. The teen and his mother, Maryam Tahmasebi, a college psychology professor, had by then spent 123 days at Dilley, which he described in a sworn declaration as infested with cockroaches, spiders, and mosquitoes, while his father was held separately at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall. "We have been put through hell for the past four months, and our physical and mental health have deteriorated in ways that might not be reversible for years," Tahmasebi wrote in a first-person account. U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee, who oversees the Flores settlement, said in a June 2026 hearing that she plans to appoint a monitor to force the administration's compliance; the case is now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. DHS told the Texas Tribune it considers the Flores settlement "a tool of the left" and is separately moving in court to terminate it outright.

2026-08-18 — Judge formally ordered independent monitor for Dilley facility [8]

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee made public an order appointing an independent monitor to oversee conditions for children in ICE and CBP custody — the first such monitor since the first Trump administration — citing numerous Flores-settlement violations including prolonged detention and inadequate medical care at Dilley.