{"id":813238,"date":"2026-05-21T23:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/813238\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:03:15","slug":"it-costs-taxpayers-15-million-a-month-to-detain-immigrant-families-at-dilley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/813238\/","title":{"rendered":"It costs taxpayers $15 million a month to detain immigrant families at Dilley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Credit: Michael Karlis<\/p>\n

The Dilley Immigration Processing Center near San Antonio costs taxpayers roughly $15 million a month to operate, according to a Houston Chronicle investigation.<\/p>\n

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pays $13.1 million monthly to run the facility \u2014 plus another $2.5 million for medical care \u2014 for the only U.S. detention center for migrant children and families in the nation. <\/p>\n

Most of the federal money goes to CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates the facility. Some of it goes to the town of Dilley itself.<\/p>\n

That $15 million isn\u2019t dependent on the population inside, and the total cost to taxpayers hasn\u2019t been reduced even though the prison\u2019s population has fallen sharply, the Chronicle reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for CoreCivic accidentally sent a contract detailing the amounts to the Houston Chronicle as an addendum to an email, the daily reports. It appears the company had instead intended to send the document to the Texas Attorney General to block its release.<\/p>\n

However, these numbers have been reported before, dating all the way back to 2018<\/a> when the facility was operated under the previous Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Dilley has been under capacity since the Trump White House reopened it in April 2025. At its peak in January of this year, the site had an average daily population of approximately 900. Now, that average is down to 222, according to an an online tracker<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Of the little over 200 detainees, Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) and others who have urged the government to shut down Dilley argue that no one inside the trailer prison has a criminal record.<\/p>\n

Castro shared an Instagram post on Thursday afternoon about the feds paying CoreCivic $13.1 million to operate the controversy-plagued camp, writing, \u201cIn America, it is now the norm to commodify child suffering and allow private investors and companies like CoreCivic to profit from the imprisonment of innocent children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDilley must be shut down so we can #FreeOurChildren,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Millions\u2019 worth of medical care?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Much like the millions spent to detain slightly more than 200 people with no criminal record, the $2.2 million doled out for medical expenses per month seems incongruous with the stories prisoners have shared of delayed, denied or insufficient care they have received inside Dilley. <\/p>\n

In a report about a flurry of 911 calls<\/a> coming from within another detention facility in Pearsall operated by GEO Group, Jonathan Ryan, a San Antonio immigration attorney and former CEO of RAICES, told the Current that immigrant detention centers often delay treatment until a detainee\u2019s condition worsens enough to call an ambulance. <\/p>\n

The companies use the tactic to avoid cutting into profit margins by administering in-house medical treatment, Ryan alleged. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou always have to remember that these are for-profit detention facilities,\u201d the attorney said. \u201cThese are corporations that are profit-based, and medical care is expensive. And so even if they have the facilities to provide medical care, if they are able to offload those services to the local community, they\u2019re going to do that because that\u2019s more money in their pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Castro has also stated after his tours of the Dilley prison camp that the medical facility was unstaffed. Indeed, when 2-month-old prisoner Juan Nicol\u00e1s was choking on his own vomit<\/a>, the detention center\u2019s medical facility was unstaffed, requiring staff to rush the baby to a hospital before he was deported.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old son of a recently released Egyptian family also faced a life-threatening medical episode<\/a> inside due to untreated appendicitis, according to the family\u2019s attorney, Eric Lee. The boy was told to take a pain reliever when he complained about his discomfort, Lee alleged, adding that the teen ultimately collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could have died,\u201d Lee told the Current.<\/p>\n

Many detainees have also reported being \u201cprescribed water\u201d for medical issues, according to Ryan and other immigrant advocates and attorneys.<\/p>\n

However, Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, told NBC<\/a> no child \u201chas been denied medical treatment or experienced a delayed medical assessment\u201d at Dilley. Staff are trained to call 911 when a child\u2019s condition exceeds what can be managed on-site, he added \u2014 not because of inadequate care, but out of \u201can abundance of clinical precaution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, ICE released a statement<\/a> responding to \u201cmainstream media lies\u201d and \u201cdebunking\u201d claims of mistreatment in Dilley, stating that \u201cin most cases, this is the best healthcare illegal aliens have received in their entire lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign Up for SA Current newsletters.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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