Inside the Dilley Immigrant Detention Center: Children's Experiences of Trauma and Fear

Fourteen-year-old Ariana Velasquez had been held at the immigrant detention center in Dilley, Texas, with her mother for some 45 days when I managed to get inside to meet her.

She perked up when I asked about her life before detention. 'I miss my friends,' she said. 'I miss my school. I miss my bed.'

The staff brought everyone in the visiting room a boxed lunch from the cafeteria: a cup of yellowish stew and a hamburger patty in a plain bun.

At first, she sat looking blankly down at the table. She poked at her food with a plastic fork and let her mother do most of the talking.

Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of what comes next.