What are the living conditions for children in ICE detention centers in 2025?

1. "Allegations of basic deprivations: water, sleep, food and hygiene"

Legal filings and watchdog reports say children in family facilities have faced shortages of clean drinking water, chronic sleep deprivation, limited hygiene supplies (soap, showers) and minimal food rations in some incidents — claims documented in court papers about the South Texas Family Residential Center and corroborated by first‑hand family accounts from Dilley and other sites ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

2. "Medical care: missed medications and delayed surgeries"

Advocates and disability‑rights inspections allege operators failed to provide essential medications and timely surgeries to people in converted facilities (including family sites), and a two‑day inspection cited failures to distribute medication for life‑threatening conditions at a recently opened California City site ^{[7] [8]}. Senator and NGO reports list cases of children denied follow‑up care after major procedures, raising concerns about continuity of pediatric treatment ^[9].

3. "Overcrowding and prolonged detention: families held longer than expected"

A pattern of rapid detention expansion and higher censuses has left many ICE facilities operating at or above contractual capacity; analyses and reporting show average daily populations rising sharply in 2025 and families/children sometimes detained for weeks or months, longer than the informal 20‑day expectation often cited in prior practice ^{[10] [2]}. Overcrowding is the backdrop cited by lawyers for many of the hygiene and sleep complaints ^{[11] [10]}.

4. "Court interventions and legal challenges: limits, orders and lawsuits"

Federal judges have intervened after testimony from detainees and lawyers, ordering improvements — for example, requiring showers, clean toilets, bedding and lawyer access at a Chicago‑area processing site (Broadview) and imposing temporary restrictions on moving minors into adult custody ^{[4] [12]}. Families and advocacy groups filed class‑action suits challenging inhumane conditions at converted facilities including California City ^{[5] [7]}.

5. "ICE, DHS and contractors: official denials and new standards"

DHS and ICE officials have defended conditions, calling some characterizations “false” and asserting detainees receive proper medical care and meals ^{[5] [9]}. ICE published revised National Detention Standards in 2025 that set hygiene and medical expectations for facilities, though advocates say enforcement and independent oversight remain weak ^{[6] [10]}.

6. "Systemic drivers: rapid expansion, private contractors and policy shifts"

Reporting links the surge in detained people to policy and funding changes in 2025 — including a large federal appropriation to expand detention capacity and new contracts converting prisons and using private operators like CoreCivic — which critics say produced a hasty, fragmented system with limited external inspection opportunities ^{[5] [8] [10]}.

7. "Children’s legal status and special protections under strain"

Legal safeguards for unaccompanied minors and limits on holding children in adult facilities have been the subject of litigation in 2025 after reports that ICE planned to keep some youths past their 18th birthdays; courts have temporarily halted some of those moves and advocacy groups filed suits to enforce protections ^{[12] [13]}.

8. "What the reporting does and does not say"

Available sources document multiple allegations, court filings and judge orders concerning children’s living conditions, but they vary by site and rely largely on legal complaints, watchdog inspections and detainee testimony rather than a single national audit ^{[1] [7] [11]}. Sources do not provide a comprehensive, facility‑by‑facility catalog of conditions for every child in ICE custody; national official data and ICE’s own standards are cited in defense but independent oversight gaps are repeatedly noted ^{[6] [10]}.

9. "Bottom line for readers"

Journalistic and legal reporting in 2025 shows credible, repeated allegations that some children in ICE family and processing facilities experienced shortages of water, hygiene supplies, medical care and sleep, often linked to overcrowding and rapid detention expansion — countered by official denials and new internal standards; courts and litigants are the main mechanisms forcing change or oversight ^{[1] [5] [4] [6]}.

If you want, I can: (a) compile a timeline of the major court orders and lawsuits cited above; (b) map which articles report on family vs. processing vs. newly converted prison facilities; or (c) extract direct quotes from plaintiffs and officials in these stories.