Migrant Advocates Intensify Efforts As Border Testing Season Begins, Officials Warn

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents told Khelin Marcano at a routine appointment in December that she and her husband were being detained, she said the moment confirmed a fear she had been carrying: "When they told us we were being detained, it felt like we already knew, all along." Marcano had debated packing a bag of clothes for her 1-year-old daughter before the appointment, and advocates say her case fits a pattern of families kept in custody for weeks or months.

Federal guidelines set by a 1997 legal agreement generally limit the detention of minors to 20 days, yet immigrant advocates and attorneys report multiple cases that exceed that benchmark. One family that entered the United States using the Biden-era Customs and Border Protection app in 2024 was processed, granted parole, then detained for 60 days before being released last week; their first court date is scheduled in 2027, defense counsel says.

The Minneapolis school district has seen its own cluster of detentions. Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained with his father on the way home from school in January, and local officials say four other students from the district were detained around the same time. Eleven-year-old Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano was held with her mother for more than one month, and their attorney, Bobby Painter, described the arrests as rapid: "They were pulled over by ICE and pulled out of their car, thrown on an airplane and sent to Dilley, all in the span of maybe 24 hours."

Advocates pressing on conditions point to the Dilley facility as an acute concern. Attorney Elora Mukherjee said, "The Trump administration is holding children and families in detention for prolonged periods of time, weeks, months," and she alleged that at Dilley "children and families ... don't have access to sufficient clean drinking water, where they don't have access to sufficient nutritious food, [and] don't have access to adequate medical care."

The detention controversies are playing out amid a broader political fight. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Immigration and Customs Enforcement a "rogue force" and said, "They need to be reined in. They need to stop the violence." Border czar Tom Homan countered that accusations of racial profiling "that's just not occurring" and said a recent Department of Homeland Security funding lapse would not affect nationwide ICE enforcement. The funding standoff contributed to a DHS shutdown over the weekend.

At the same time, enforcement policy is shifting toward capacity expansion: immigration officials plan to spend $38.3 billion to boost detention capacity to 92,000 beds, a budgetary move that columnists and a federal judge have criticized. Judge Patrick Schiltz warned that "ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence." Locally, Yuma-area coverage has noted that migrant advocates are intensifying efforts as testing season begins while officials continue to warn of trespassing safety risks, and clashes have surfaced at anti-ICE protests, including a confrontation in Springdale. The unfolding mix of litigation, budget proposals, and community action will shape enforcement and advocacy in border communities like Yuma County in the months ahead.