The Children of ICE
HAVANA TIMES – “Are you going to let her die?” asked the desperate mother of Amalia, a one-year-old girl who, along with her parents, was being held at the immigrant detention center in Dilley, Texas. Amalia was unconscious. “How long are you going to leave her like this?” Kheilin Valero, Amalia’s mother, kept asking the staff at the medical clinic inside the detention facility.
When Amalia and her parents were detained by immigration agents and sent to Dilley, the child already had a fever and was moving sluggishly. Her parents repeatedly asked for medicine for their daughter, but they were given only Tylenol and told to stop making a fuss. Eventually, the child became so ill that she was sent to a hospital for a week. There, she was diagnosed with COVID, pneumonia, an ear infection, and a dangerous pulmonary virus.
This is how the United States treats immigrant children.
The account of what happened to Amalia and other children appears in a report by The Marshall Project titled: “An Average of 25 Babies and Minors in ICE Custody Each Day.” The report reveals that since Donald Trump assumed the presidency in January 2025, at least 500 babies and children under the age of three have spent time in the custody of immigration enforcement (ICE). Parents complain of poor conditions at the Texas detention center, where their children have been isolated and neglected when they fall ill.
The situation worsens when children remain in detention beyond the 20-day legal limit. The report indicates that since Trump returned to the White House, at least 175 babies and toddlers have been detained for longer than those 20 days.
By any measure, this constitutes official cruelty. No child, anywhere in the world, should ever be imprisoned. I understand that many of these children are with their parents and would not want to be separated. But the solution is not to detain the youngest ones.
Furthermore, it is highly suspicious that ICE does not allow journalists to enter that detention center. If they have nothing to hide, why won’t they let us in? Some politicians, such as Congressman Joaquín Castro, have been able to enter without cameras. But every time they leave, their reports are grim.
“Seeing the dynamic between parents and their children [inside the detention center] is very painful,” Congressman Castro said in an interview with *The New York Times*. “When parents are treated with indignity while their children are watching, the illusion that [the parents] can protect them vanishes. I don’t know if those relationships will ever be the same.”
The Trump administration’s cruelty toward children also occurs outside detention centers.
Some 205,000 children have been separated from at least one parent due to ICE detentions and deportations, according to a Brookings Institution study. And it is estimated that 22,000 children—who are U.S. citizens—have been separated from both parents. Many of them end up in government custody, waiting for families to care for them.
Trump has been far worse regarding the mistreatment of immigrant children during his second term than during his first. Something changed in his heart. It hardened.
During his first presidency, Trump was accused of separating some 5,500 children from their migrant parents, according to official figures. Researchers estimate that two-thirds of the parents returned to their countries of origin, while many of the children remained in the United States with relatives or friends. And it is easy to imagine that some of those children will never see their parents again.
The short- and long-term trauma for these children is immense. Yet, Trump continues to do it. Those who support his policies blame parents for putting their children at risk yet fail to grasp that the journey north was undertaken precisely to escape violence and poverty—and to offer those children a better life.
I decided long ago not to try to get inside Trump’s head. That said, I assume the cruelty he has directed at migrant children and the children of foreigners is intended to instill fear and send a “don’t come here” message to people in other countries. That message has already been received.
To conclude, I ask only that we perform this mental exercise together, regardless of the color of your passport. Imagine one of your children is hugging you, and suddenly, a group of hooded agents tears the child from your arms and detains you. It is impossible to know what happens next, but your life will never be the same again. Nor will theirs.
This happens in the United States every day.
Take a look at your own Cuban children. Last time I was in Havana a boy at around 12 years of age offered me a prostitute. He was around 140-145 centimetres – tiny child. But spoke like a mafioso. It was shocking. I puit my cup of coffee down and my mouth opened. I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t find the words. In the end the 12 year old child boy run away after noticing I am not excited about his proposal. I am sure his Cuban adult was watching how he performed. I scanned my surrounding curious who is that individual … no luck. It was a shocking experience. I say you Cubans should take better care of your children. Stop looking at ICE, USA and anyone else. Look at yourselves.