The transfer of Liam and his father to the South Texas Family Residential Center has renewed attention on the nation’s only detention facility that is permitted to hold families. The scrutiny on the family detention facility follows years of complaints by advocates, except that the conditions at the Dilley center now are worse, attorneys said. Since the Trump administration launched its mass deportation efforts, deaths of immigrants in detention have reached a new record. Demonstrators protest outside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley on Jan. 28, 2026. Protesters march to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley.