South Texas Family Residential Center
Residents line up for a meal at Dilley’s South Texas Family Residential Center, the largest immigrant detention center in the United States. (Ilana Panich-Linsman)

Eye on Texas: Family Detention

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A version of this story ran in the December 2015 issue.

 

South Texas Family Residential Center
Residents line up for a meal at Dilley’s South Texas Family Residential Center, the largest immigrant detention center in the United States.  Ilana Panich-Linsman

At one point when I was at the detention center with a New York Times reporter, women surrounded us, asking for help getting out. “Tell our stories, show our faces,” they said. It was an unsettling experience.

South Texas Family Residential Center
Toys in a school classroom at the center in Dilley.  Ilana Panich-Linsman

In the six months since the photos were taken, the situation has changed. The women’s asylum requests are being processed more quickly and more people have been released to stay with relatives and friends.

Karnes County Residential Center
An empty intake waiting room at the Karnes County Residential Center, which houses mothers and children primarily from Central America.  Ilana Panich-Linsman

[See more photos from Eye on Texas here. To submit Texas-based documentary photography, please send inquiries to [email protected].]

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