Nearly a decade after the ACLU exposed the detention of immigrant children, the same pain, fear, and confinement is unfolding again in 2025
These testimonies from almost a decade ago reveal the feelings, pain, and helplessness of immigrant minors detained under the country’s immigration authorities.
It seems as though the world has stood still, and that the same conditions that existed in 2016 are being lived again in 2025.
That year, the ACLU documented the cases of hundreds of children and published some of the letters that minors wrote to Santa Claus. They are heartbreaking testimonies that are worth revisiting at a time when the most vile tactics are being used against the immigrant community in the United States.
Since the start of this year, some 600 immigrant children have been placed in government shelters by ICE, according to government data. That figure, which had not been previously reported, is already higher than the total for the previous four years combined, and it is the highest number since recordkeeping began a decade ago.
Families are not supposed to be held in immigration detention at all — and certainly not for more than a few days — yet these children have been locked up with their mothers for more than a year. They are fleeing violence in Central America and sought asylum in the United States. Instead, they were caught in legal limbo while their lawyers push for the Supreme Court to hear their case.
The youngest children have spent almost half of their lives behind bars and do not have a single memory formed outside the confines of the Berks County detention facility. Still, they believe in Santa and wrote letters to him describing what they want for Christmas. Even the youngest children ask Santa, more than anything else, to give them their freedom, the ACLU report states. Here are their testimonies.
Carla, Age 14
13 months in detention (2016)
“Dear Santa Claus, I am a girl with my whole life ahead of me and I want freedom like any other girl. The only thing I ask on this day is an opportunity to be with the person who’s waiting for me outside [my little sister]. This person has a little heart very [strong] but little.”
Samuel, Age 6
15 months in detention (2016)
“Dear Santa, I like computers, PlayStation, going to the beach, and video games, but here I can’t do those things. That’s why I want my freedom.”
Samuel and his mom fled El Salvador after his mother witnessed a gang crime and their lives were threatened. He has been diagnosed with PTSD and is at risk of harming himself. He has serious dental problems and went more than six months in detention without treatment.
Daniel, Age 3
13 months in detention (2016)
“Dear Santa! First of all I would like you to help me get my freedom. I have been imprisoned for 416 days. For Christmas I want a remote control car and a toy cell phone. Thank you very much.”
Daniel just turned 3. He has been detained for as long as he can remember and learned to talk in detention. He and his mother fled kidnapping threats and gender-based violence in Honduras. His mom has been diagnosed with PTSD.
Joaquin, Age 7
13 months in detention (2016)
“Dear Santa. First, what I would like to ask from you this Christmas is my freedom. I’ve already spent two Christmases here. And also I want a remote control car. Thank you very much. Joaquin, 7 years old.”
Joaquin is underweight, at about 1 to 3 percent of the normal body weight for a child of his age, and he is behaviorally challenged. He has been diagnosed with PTSD and sometimes expresses his frustration and hopelessness in suicidal gestures.
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