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When Tania Warner and her seven-year-old daughter, Ayla, were released after nearly three weeks of detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Canadian mother’s joy at regaining her freedom was tempered by the knowledge of the many families who remained incarcerated.
“They were wonderful people. I just loved them and I cried so hard when I left, I just wanted to take them all with me,” she said.
Warner and Ayla were held in two ICE facilities in south Texas, alongside families from Venezuela, Egypt, El Salvador, Russia and many other nations.
Not all of them spoke English – or even shared a common tongue – but the gruelling experience of detention helped forge kinship across identities and languages, said Warner.“I felt camaraderie … we all were united by our experience,” she said.
Immigration detainees “are suffering greatly”, enduring months of imprisonment with no due process, with the constant fear of separation from their children and no hope of freedom, Warner said.
Like Warner, most of them had committed no criminal offence, but had instead fallen afoul of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has swept up tens of thousands of people. “They’re just victims … What the [US] administration is doing is wrong and illegal,” she said.
Warner and Ayla were originally held at Rio Grande valley central processing center in McAllen, Texas, before they were transferred to the Dilley detention center on 20 March.
Dilley has been criticized for a lack of proper health care and food for the families detained. In February, the center reported two measles cases. At the end of March, Joaquin Castro, a Democratic US congressman, said there was a two-year-old in Dilley who is sick and not getting proper help.
A report this month by Human Rights First and RAICES described “pervasive abuses against families and children” in detention and found that more than 5,600 people had been imprisoned at Dilley between April 2025 and February 2026, including toddlers and newborn babies. It found that families were regularly detained for months in violation of court limits, were pressured to abandon asylum claims and were frequently subjected to threats of being separated. During her time in Dilley, Warner was constantly pressured by guards to “self-deport”.
Warner and her daughter are from British Columbia, but moved to Kingsville, Texas, in 2021 when she married her American husband, Edward.
On 14 March, the family was driving home from a baby shower in Raymondville, Texas, when they were stopped at a border patrol checkpoint in Sarita. Both Warner and Ayla, who was recently diagnosed with autism, were taken aside to be fingerprinted and were then detained.
Warner maintains that their documents are in order, and that she is legally able to live and work in the US until 8 June 2030. She provided the Guardian with a photo of her employment authorisation card, which has that expiry date.
They were released on 3 April on a $9,500 bond and are now grappling with the fallout from their detention – and looming fears over their status to remain in the country. The US is still seeking to deport them, and the family must check in frequently with ICE. Warner must wear an ankle monitor and is not permitted to travel more than 75 miles outside of her home.
On 16 April, she and Ayla will need to travel to Harlingen, Texas, for a meeting with their bond officer. To get there, they again have to travel past an ICE checkpoint.
“I’m terrified, I don’t know if they’re going to try to re-detain us,” she said.
Most of the families she encountered in detention were from Latin America, said Warner. Parents who had been professionals in their home countries were working at McDonald’s or construction work to support their children in the US, before they were picked up by ICE, she said.
One Russian family had sought asylum when the father faced conscription to fight in Ukraine, a conflict he opposed. “They’re being punished now, they’re in jail for that,” she said.
The Human Rights First and RAICES report found that conditions in Dilley were “unsafe and degrading, with inadequate access to food, water, personal hygiene, and basic care, particularly harming children”.
Both Warner and her daughter developed a persistent, red rash that she said were caused by the harsh detergents used to clean their detention uniforms: a single pair of sweatpants, a T-shirt and sweater.
The facility smells strongly of astringent bleach and cleaners, Warner recalled.
“The chemicals … they were using destroyed my daughter’s skin,” she said. She said Ayla did not completely understand the realities of detention and was mostly confused by their inability to move around as they pleased.
Approached for comment on 20 March, ICE asked for more information about the Warners’ case. The Guardian provided that information, but close to three weeks, ICE has not replied, despite follow-ups.
When asked about Warner and Ayla’s case immediately after their detention, Global Affairs Canada, the federal ministry that handles consular services and diplomatic relations, said it was “aware of multiple cases of Canadians currently or previously in immigration-related detention in the US”.
“Consular officials advocate for Canadian citizens abroad and raise concerns about justified and serious complaints of ill-treatment or discrimination with the local authorities but cannot exempt Canadians from local legal processes,” a spokesperson said. “Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed.”
When asked for comment regarding their release, Global Affairs said it did not have anything further to add.
