Amalia Arrieta

Amalia Arrieta was just 18 months old when she got sick in ICE family detention after she and her mother, Kheilin Valero, were taken into custody following an ICE appointment in El Paso on December 11. Her mother says that for two weeks, as Amalia’s breathing got worse, she was given only basic medication before finally being hospitalized for 10 days and diagnosed with COVID-19 and RSV. By then, Kheilin said, her baby had developed pneumonia, bronchitis, and malnourishment from vomiting everything she ate. It is impossible to read her story and not see the human cost of detaining very young children.

Mica Rosenberg’s reporting in this ProPublica article shows that Amalia’s story was not an isolated one. Across Dilley, children described fear, illness, boredom, depression, and the pain of being cut off from the lives they had built in the United States. Many had been living here long enough to have schools, teachers, siblings, friends, routines, and whole communities they missed deeply, and some wrote letters begging not to be forgotten. ProPublica reports that around 3,500 detainees have cycled through the center since it reopened, more than half of them minors, and that about 300 children were held for more than a month despite the long-standing 20-day limit that generally applies to child detention. Families and advocates described delays in medical care, children constantly getting sick, worms and mold in food, overcrowded rooms, and children so distressed they self-harmed or talked about suicide. The article makes clear that what is happening in Dilley is not just detention. It is the daily wearing down of children and parents who had already come to this country looking for safety.

For the clearest detail and strongest finished piece, I recommend using cardstock and a cutting machine. Cardstock provides the stability needed to hold the fine lines and structure of the design. You can download the image directly from this site or access the full set on the Cricut website under the What Remains Collection. These templates are free to use for personal and community projects, but they may not be sold or used for commercial purposes.

To download the PNG file, click on the image template to the left, open a new page and right click to save on to your computer. Alternately, you can visit the collection page on the Cricut website for all the files here.