Texas state police on Wednesday fired tear gas to disperse protesters outside a United States immigration detention centre in Dilley, sparking outrage as demonstrators demanded the release of a five-year-old Ecuadoran boy caught up in President Donald Trump’s renewed immigration clampdown.
About 100 protesters gathered outside the South Texas Family Residential Center, holding placards accusing federal immigration agents of terrorising immigrant communities and unlawfully detaining children. The protest quickly escalated after Texas law enforcement officers arrived in riot gear and deployed tear gas canisters to force the crowd to disperse.
One of the canisters reportedly landed close to two AFP journalists covering the protest, striking and temporarily incapacitating one of them, further fuelling criticism over the use of force against a peaceful demonstration.
Among the key demands raised by protesters was the immediate release of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, an Ecuadoran asylum seeker whose detention has triggered national outrage. Demonstrators also called for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and urged the US Senate to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Local elected official Christina Morales told AFP that the protest was meant to draw attention to what she described as abuses under the current immigration policy and to mobilise voters ahead of the midterm elections.
Earlier in the day, Democratic lawmakers Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett visited the facility to inspect conditions and seek access to the detained child and more than 1,100 others being held there. Castro later said the boy’s mental health had deteriorated since his detention.
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In a video posted on X, Castro quoted the child’s father as saying the boy had become withdrawn, sleeping excessively and showing signs of sadness and depression. The congressman insisted that the child and his family were legally in the United States as asylum seekers.
Public anger intensified after images circulated showing the frightened preschooler wearing a blue bunny hat and a school backpack as immigration officers detained him during an operation in Minneapolis. According to the superintendent of the boy’s school, Zena Stenvik, officers allegedly used the child as bait to lure adults out of the family home before making arrests.
The boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were taken into custody on January 20 as they arrived home, a move critics described as cruel and unnecessary. A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked their deportation, offering brief relief amid mounting legal and political pressure.
Castro also called for the release of all detainees at the privately run Dilley facility, rejecting claims that the centre houses dangerous individuals. He said none of those detained were criminals, directly challenging President Trump’s repeated assertions that the crackdown targets so-called criminal immigrants.
The clash in Dilley has become the latest flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement, as images of tear gas, detained children, and armed police deepen divisions across the United States and intensify scrutiny of the administration’s policies.
