Hinojosa Demands Demand Release of Detained 5-Year-Old, Decries Abbott Facilitating ICE

San Antonio, TX — Today, gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa joined community and faith leaders, along with US Reps Joaquin Castro, Jasmine Crockett, and Greg Casar in San Antonio, and more to call on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately release Liam Adrian Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old detained at the Dilley Detention Facility in Texas, and to safely reunite him with his family in Minneapolis. Hinojosa emphasized the cruelty and corruption behind ICE operations that are terrorizing communities while enriching private prison companies.

“This cruelty we are witnessing in our communities is designed to mask the corruption and distract from the grift,” said Hinojosa. “Since last year, those taken by ICE have been incarcerated by private prison companies driven by profit. Abbott has taken tens of thousands of dollars from GEO Group, one of only two private prison companies running these detention centers. The government is broken. But while the government has fallen into authoritarianism, the people have not — the courage we are witnessing shows us the way forward.”

Texas is the only state in the nation that allows children and their parents to be detained in immigration facilities. The Dilley center is operated by CoreCivic, while the Karnes County facility is run by GEO Group, which has donated over $77,000 to Abbott’s campaigns. Both companies profit from daily quotas requiring ICE to arrest a minimum number of people, with American taxpayers footing the bill. Abbott’s administration also created a special licensing category in 2015 that allowed these facilities to detain children without meeting normal child care standards, a decision that came shortly after the companies donated $55,000 to his campaign.

Leaders in San Antonio today called for accountability for ICE and Border Patrol’s violence in recent weeks, the immediate release of Liam, legislation to end family detention, and for families to be reunified. Speakers described Liam’s detention as family separation in real-time and condemned enforcement practices that traumatize children and tear families apart, noting that ICE has recorded more than 30 deaths in custody and detained over 70,000 people at record levels.

Check out Hinojosa’s Remarks HERE:

###