To be found in the show
Since the return of Donald Trump, more than 400,000 people have been detained by ICE, the federal immigration police, and nearly 60,000 migrants are locked up there. But what happens to those arrested? In what conditions do they live? And why are children also detained? Investigation by Pierrick Leurent and Valérie Defert in Texas.
Arrests of migrants have increased in the United States under Donald Trump. More than 610,000 people have passed through ICE detention centers since January 2025. And the pace continues to accelerate with nearly 51,000 arrests in August 2026, in just one month. A new record under the second term of this American president.
In Texas, a state where a significant part of this system is concentrated, our reporters investigated for several weeks what happens after an arrest.
In Dilley, south of San Antonio, is the nation’s largest family detention center, capable of holding up to 2,400 people. ICE prohibits journalists from accessing it. However, it is behind these walls that parents and their children are locked up. Since Donald Trump returned to power, more than 6,200 minors have been taken into custody by ICE, including at least 500 babies and children three years old or younger.
Dilley Detention Center, Texas. © Pierrick Leurent
Our team collected the testimony of a Venezuelan family whose mother, Maria Betania, and two children were arrested while walking to the school bus stop. They will spend 17 days in Dilley before a federal judge orders their release.
Victor, and Maria Betania Uzategui-Castillo, alongside Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, the family’s lawyer. © Pierrick Leurent
In San Antonio, a pastor accompanies families of detainees every week. In her congregation, she estimates that about one family in four has already seen one of their loved ones arrested and then deported.
Among these members, Jefferson, father of two daughters and Venezuelan asylum seeker, recounts from the Don Hutto detention center his months of separation from his family and denounces the living conditions and access to care. Deaths in custody have increased sharply: at least 57 people have died in ICE custody since Donald Trump’s return.
According to Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, the death rate had already more than doubled in the first 500 days of his second term.
Jefferson speaks with his wife via video from the Don Hutto Detention Center in Texas. © Pierrick Leurent
This policy also represents a considerable market for private companies, responsible for managing part of the centers. In Dilley, a contract obtained by the Houston Chronicle calls for paying $13.1 million per month to keep the center capable of accommodating up to 2,400 people. And the system is set to expand further. Some $45 billion has already been allocated to increase detention capacities until 2029.
