Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byErika Gonzalez
Four months after leaving the family detention center in Dilley, Kelly Vargas’ 6-year-old daughter still wakes up at night asking about “the bad ICE men.” Vargas, a Colombian mother who had lived in New York for more than a year before being detained in late 2025, is now trying to rebuild her life in Bogotá, Colombia. But the effects have stayed with her.
“She doesn’t forget,” Vargas said, adding that her daughter often asks, “Mom, do you remember when we were in jail?”
For nearly two months at a family detention center in Dilley, 70 miles south of San Antonio, mother and daughter lived through what Vargas described as constant illness and fear, including repeated sickness and long nights without sleep. Others in Texas have described similar experiences. Immigration detention centers have drawn growing attention as advocates, lawyers and medical professionals say problems with health care, crowding and oversight are affecting people held in custody.
byMax Mazoch
Whitney Lauderdale has loved the beauty of the Texas Hill Country for as long as she can remember. It was the place that captured the heart of her grandfather, who purchased the 28-acre Comal County property Lauderdale lives on, and one that she hopes to pass to her two children.
“This is where we plan on spending our forever,” Lauderdale said.
It’s idyllic. But Lauderdale worries it may not be in years to come.
In the past year, Comal County residents were shocked to learn a new permit for a wastewater treatment facility had been proposed for a development in Fischer in the northern part of the county.
byErika Gonzalez
Early in the morning, Benny Meléndez, owner of the residential construction company BM3, called one of his workers who hadn’t arrived at the job site in the Rio Grande Valley, where they were supposed to pour concrete that day.
“Come. ICE just took him,” the worker’s wife said.
Contractors across South Texas have reported immigration operations near construction sites, with workers being detained while arriving or leaving. And the fear is spreading.
bySheldon Munroe
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Austin City Hall on Tuesday — one year to the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration for his second term — to denounce ICE deportations and demand that the city stop cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.
“It is super important that we come out and use our First Amendment right to protest and petition,” said protest organizer Sophia Mirto.