On Wednesday, January 28, 2026, peaceful protesters in Dilley, Texas, were blocked from accessing the South Texas Family Detention Center as state troopers in riot gear fired pepper balls into the crowd. Hundreds of people gathered in Dilley, a rural town in Frio County, to demand an end to the detention of children.
Earlier this week, dozens of immigrant families protested from inside the detention center, where five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, from Minneapolis, is being held alongside other children. Video and audio recorded families chanting “Libertad” (“Freedom”), a refrain protesters echoed on Wednesday as they marched nearly three miles from Dilley’s central square to the gates of the South Texas Family Detention Center.
Hundreds of people gathered in Dilley, a rural town in Frio County, to demand an end to the detention of children. (Photo by Madeline de Figueiredo/The Daily Yonder)
“What’s happening in Dilley shows that rural communities are not just sites where federal policy is carried out, but places where people are organizing, witnessing harm, and speaking out,” Eric Martinez, executive director of Mano Amiga Action, one of the groups that organized the protest, told The Daily Yonder. “Rural resistance matters because it challenges the idea that harm is acceptable as long as it happens far from public view.”
Sulma Franco, a Guatemalan immigrant to Texas and former detainee, spoke of her experience to the crowd.
“I spent more than two years detained in different centers. The detention system has broken many of our communities of color…We’re here in solidarity for all the children, all the mothers, all the fathers, all the brothers and sisters that have been detained,” Franco said. “It is important to me, as an immigrant woman, to come here and represent those communities that are still suffering oppression.”
Sulma Franco and Candi address the crowd in Dilley, Texas. (Photo by Madeline de Figueiredo/The Daily Yonder)
Thirteen-year-old Candi also shared her detention experience and commitment to protesting.
“I was detained when I was three, along with my mother,” Candi said. “I am here to raise my voice for myself, for my friends, and for all the children that have been unjustly incarcerated…There shouldn’t be cages for children.”
We have withheld Candi’s last name from the publication to protect her identity.
Protesters and organizers traveled from across Texas, joined by locals, including Jesse James Cruz, a Dilley resident and former employee of the detention center.
“The detention center is often discussed as a good work opportunity since we don’t have a lot of high-paying jobs here, but personally, it’s hard to see it as that, especially working so closely with the detainees there,” Cruz told The Daily Yonder. “I got to know a few of them, and there are a lot of kind people. A lot of good souls.”
Protesters traveled from across the state, including urban centers like San Antonio and Austin, as well as rural areas in Kerr County, Maverick County, and Frio County.
“We’re standing up for due process. We’re standing up for the right for these [detained] people to be heard and to have their attorneys tell their story,” Mary Claire Munroe of San Antonio told The Daily Yonder. “What is happening now is that they are being detained without any end in sight, without any access to lawyers, and in very inhumane treatment.”
For many protesters, the scenes from Minneapolis have ignited a new sense of urgency and action.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, knowing that this detention center was here,” said Mike Munroe from San Antonio. “The folks in Minneapolis have been protesting in negative 40-degree wind chills. This is the least that we can do.”
State Troopers and Border Patrol await the protesters at the entrance of the South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, Texas. (Photo by Madeline de Figueiredo/The Daily Yonder)
Demonstrators repeatedly said they were peaceful and unarmed, but when they reached the South Texas Family Detention Center, Border Patrol agents and state troopers blocked the entrance, ordering protesters to retreat. As dozens of additional troopers arrived, officers used pepper balls to disperse the crowd. Two protesters were arrested.
“When officers respond to prayer, vigils, and marches with force, it reveals how fragile this system is when faced with moral accountability,” Martinez said. “Detention centers are often framed as economic opportunities for rural towns, but that framing ignores the human cost carried by families and neighbors who live alongside them.”
Protesters march to the South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, Texas. (Photo by Madeline de Figueiredo/The Daily Yonder)
For Cruz, a Dilley local, the solidarity felt in his community defined the day.
“I think it’s beautiful to see so many people from all around unite here under one step and one force,” Cruz said.
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