From Disneyland to ‘Dilleylandia’: A 9-year-old girl’s story inside US migrant detention

WASHINGTON — A 9-year-old Colombian girl and her mother were detained for nearly four months at a family immigration center in Dilley, Texas, after arriving in the U.S. for a planned Disney World vacation, according to a ProPublica investigation.

Maria Antonia Guerra Montoya and her mother were stopped at the Miami airport last October despite holding valid visas. Authorities interrogated the pair for several hours before transferring them to the Dilley facility.

The detention center, which the Trump administration reopened in 2025, has held more than 3,500 people. Roughly half of those detainees are minors.

In a letter to reporters, Maria Antonia described her experience as "Dilleylandia," a grim play on the "Disneylandia" she had hoped to visit. She reported that the facility failed to meet her vegetarian dietary needs, lacked adequate educational programs, and left her feeling deeply unhappy.

The girl's mother expressed grave concerns regarding their deteriorating physical and mental health during the prolonged detention.

ProPublica’s latest reporting offers a searing indictment of the human toll behind U.S. family detention policies, reframing a complex regulatory issue through the eyes of a child. By highlighting Maria Antonia’s experience—from her haunting drawings of prison uniforms to the grim irony of the "Dilleylandia" nickname for the South Texas Family Residential Center—the narrative transforms a dense policy debate into an accessible study of institutional failure.

The case exposes the procedural absurdities inherent in current enforcement mechanisms. Despite a prior visa overstay, Maria’s mother was married to a U.S. citizen and in the process of adjusting her status for a green card. Their arrest upon entering on valid tourist visas underscores a rigid, often contradictory, bureaucratic approach—a clear vestige of the hardline immigration protocols established during the Trump administration. The decision to maintain and reopen facilities like Dilley signals a continued reliance on carceral solutions for civil immigration matters.

Beyond the specifics of one family, this account raises urgent legal and ethical questions regarding the prolonged detention of minors. Evidence of medical neglect, including Maria’s fainting spells and inadequate nutrition, provides a potent evidentiary basis for advocates and legal experts challenging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Ultimately, the report transcends partisan talking points to confront a fundamental policy question: Does the pursuit of border security justify the systemic trauma of children, regardless of their legal standing? By centering the child’s perspective, the analysis suggests that the current enforcement framework has lost sight of basic humanitarian standards.

Although the story of the detained Colombian mother and daughter is not directly about our community, it resonates deeply with the Vietnamese-American experience. It echoes the shared anxieties many of our families feel regarding immigration, family reunification, and navigating the labyrinthine U.S. legal system. From the long-standing efforts to bring loved ones over on F2B visas to the everyday lives of those in Little Saigon, these challenges remain a central part of our collective journey in America.