Hilda Torres is a mother, provider, and caretaker from the Rio Grande Valley. For years she has been the sole support for her elderly mother, pregnant and disabled daughter, and family. Now, their lives have been completely uprooted.
In November 2025, Hilda Torres was wrongfully arrested in Los Fresnos, Texas during a traffic stop. The police couldn't find a reason to detain her, so they invented a false DWI charge that was later tested to be negative.
Instead of letting her go, they sent her to the El Valle Detention Facility in Raymondville even though she has a valid visa that expires in 2028. This is the same infamous detention center where the McAllen High School mariachi student Antonio Gámez-Cuéllar was wrongfully imprisoned while his brothers and parents were sent to the Dilley detention center, another facility known for its abuse towards children like 5-year-old Liam Ramos.
Hilda risked everything to get a letter out to her family exposing the abuse, torture, misogyny, and filthy conditions within the El Valle Detention Facility. In retaliation, the officers put her in "The Hole", a freezing cold solitary confinement torture area used to punish women to get them to break down and sign away their rights, but Hilda encourages others to stay strong and not give in.
We honor her powerful strength and will to fight against this unjust system of ICE and police by publishing her full letter today.
We demand freedom and justice for Hilda Torres!
We demand accountability and action from Los Fresnos politicians and their police department for destroying the lives of the Torres family!
We demand that RGV politicians Vicente Gonzalez, Janie Lopez, and Adam Hinojosa shut this concentration camp down and punish the predators who abuse women inside it every day!
In her words, "don’t stay quiet, for you and also for others, this has to stop and it’s only possible if we, the people, raise our voices and speak up!"
CONTENT WARNING - Trauma, torture, abuse, inhumane conditions.
My name is Hilda Torres and I [have] been in detention since Nov. 6 - 25 at El Valle detention facility, I feel like I’m experiencing a nightmare that doesn’t seem to end. My life and my family’s has changed dramatically from one day to the other and I’m not the only one that has been accused of something we didn’t do. By the time I was able to prove my arrest was unfair, I was already facing deportation. I am in [an] appeal process that can take up to 18 months. Every door we see gets closed before we can access it. I have been living in Texas for the last 25 years. I had a work permit for about 2 years due to family violence. I don’t have a criminal record or charges of any [type] I don’t know Mexico or have family there and I’m not a danger to the community. I am a hardworking woman who only takes care of her family, fosters dogs, and cats and helps others, especially elderly my daughter, who is disabled with chronic conditions that have no cure. I have my almost 88 year old mother and even though she isn’t my biological mother, to me she’s my mother and I’m her daughter. For the last 9 years I have been caring for her and dad who passed away Nov 2024 leaving us alone. He was a veteran and [served] this country for another 20 years. I also have 3 sons, 2 of them going to the military this year, and my older daughter who has been caring for my disabled daughter and mom, but she's also sick with a stomach ulcer and vomiting blood. I'm the one who used to take mom and my disabled daughter to their appointments, know their medical history, prepared their meals, fix meds and everything else. Mom has fallen 3 times trying to get up and look for me. She has [congestive] heart [failure] stage 4 and other chronic conditions, her last wish is to see home again. I had promised her and dad I would always be there, my daughter[‘s] condition [has] also worsened due to stress. Sometimes when I start to think of the daily deportations and see the tired faces of the ones [that have been] here over a year I feel like I should sign mine, but how do I put together 25 years of my life and take them with me? My family owes thousands of dollars and yet I’m still here.
Every night I dream of being home, in my dreams the days pass and I really believe I finally made it home but I wake up here day by day, then I start to think of who's doing everything I was doing, who taking my momma or my daughter to the hospital at night when they don’t feel well? [Am] I ever going home again? If the movie, park, or beach days ever [come] back. I can see my children are suffering every time they see me here but I refuse to go [on] without them and mom, they all say they can go with me but their life is here. I will continue to wait, in this horrible place there they keep the water boiling and we are treated like if we are criminals or animals, my phone doesn’t even work I have asked several agents and nothing gets resolved, I can only use tablets, and if I get one that works I’m lucky and I get charged 3 times more than regular phones. [The] sergeants and officers are tired of me asking, and one of them yelled in my face, and at one point, he stepped closer right on [up] my face I thought he would hit me he gives me the worst tablets and after 7 days of not knowing from my family, I saw them in Sunday visitation. My 17 year old had a broken leg, and my heart broke realizing I was used to being there for them, but now I don’t even know how they’re doing. I requested mental health to deal with everything, I did [say] I felt hopeless but I never said I would hurt myself, I have my family to fight for, yet I was told we all have family problems and maybe you’re just being a little bit selfish. I’m not saying we don’t all have problems, but I can’t go home and fix mine, I can’t even talk to my family, I was sent to a dirty room where my clothes [were] removed, I was there in the floor without being allowed to take a shower or brush my teeth since 12-1-12 till 12-5-25. I didn’t like the mental health treatment so I refused to eat, they tried making me eat telling me they would cancel my court and I wouldn’t have visitation and finally they said they would fix my phone line and a 5 minutes call would be given to me, pure lies of [these] people, I ate half of the food they [gave] me.
And no call was provided to me, I actually thought they cared for a minute. They just didn’t want to get in trouble if I continued not eating. I think the pandemic was a joke compared [to] this. I’m a strong woman who doesn’t easily fold but yet I have [been] seeing so much pain, so much suffering, from women of different countries, mothers who have fell from [the] top bunks, suffered other accidents or falls and just hearing [the] people say, we don’t have any type of insurance. But we can give you [Tylenol], like really? Apart from them already being separated from their families, they get deported and sent sick, I would need a lot of pages for their stories, daily they go and daily more arrive, not all officers are bad but sadly they just follow orders. I’ve had seen how without previous notice they took this poor moms in the middle of the night, [untill] it happened to me on 01-31,26 me and 6 other women got woken up around 2:30 am without telling us why or where, most of us with open appeal cases they put us in a intake room in the outside of the building the room smelled bad with trash and dust everywhere and also a clogged toilet, one of the officers asked us to sign a paper that said we received our property but I refused because they didn’t give me any property and also they only give me $40 dollars out of $100 my children had put in my account, the officer started shouting in my face all angry he then left the room and it started to get super cold I kept knocking so they could [raise] the temperature, an officer came and said it ain’t even that cold, it’s just like outside, I responded, exactly outside is so cold, but he just said please stop! I was covering the other women with whatever uniforms and jackets [that were] left by previous inmates.
Soon, we all started to cough, and I could see their faces trying to endure the pain, I could feel the cold in my bones as I kept walking, trying to stay warm, my left arm got numb and I had left chest pain, I kept knocking Hours later a different officer returned with the property paperwork and I signed it because I wasn’t the only one suffering the consequences. After that, they put the room warmer for some time, I [fell] asleep and then I woke up it was probably 6 or 7 am and cold again, I could hear other people demanding answers in different rooms, about 13 or 14 hours in [dangerous] temperatures in a anti hygienic room without being able to speak to our family and without any type of answers, around 4 PM the officer said let’s go back to your dorms the bus broke down and you all missed your flight. I have been requesting medical but one time they had me waiting for about 2 hours and I was sent back to the form because they said the [doctor] would take a lot longer to come and the next time I was in the gym and they didn’t take me because I was wearing shorts. Finally, a nurse came in 2-16-26 I told him I had a very sore throat I could barely pass my saliva and the pain was going to my ears also my ears [have] been with so much pressure and pain, dried eyes, I’m struggling to breath and had a fever, [I] have random body pains, and occasionally my left chest and bones hurt, he didn't check my temperature or blood pressure he said he give me Tylenol for 7 days and for me to put a request after those 7 days if I was still sick, I asked to please be sent to front medical so they could check me because I can deal with pain but I think I have an infection and I want to get treated, he said, I understand but I have strict orders from ICE to try and treat with Tylenol first. On 2-18-26, I got a really strong pain in my lower stomach that I didn’t think I could walk and even [worse], climb to my bed, I made it, but I got sentimental because it’s the first time in a long time that I’m alone and sick, I don’t usually get sick but when I do my children make me spicy hot soups, we always used to take care of each other, but this time I was shaking alone in bed and I don’t know if I passed out [or if] I just went to sleep, my friends said they tried to wake up but they couldn’t and they thought I just wanted to sleep I didn’t even [feel] anything, they [shouldn’t] have us here if they can’t even have some empathy and respect but here we are just one more number.
I also have to deal with an officer who looks at me when I take a shower and reporting him would be useless; they would probably just move me from [my] dorm, and this is the only one with visitation on Sundays, and that’s when my boys don’t go to school. I am truly sorry for everyone going through this same situation, and I ask everyone to speak up. I’m sorry my oldest son had to sell he’s small farm that took a lot of years and hard work to try and help me. I am sorry I can’t be there for my momma, daughter, and [my] whole family. I am sorry to [now] even my dogs and cats are sad without me. I'm sorry the president think we are criminals, I hope he can be more human. I know for man nothing is possible, but for God all things are possible, I know and have faith God’s hand will touch the heart of whoever is in [charge] of my case. I know my wait will be worth it I really hope I can go home again. I want to enter that door and hug mom especially, I also want to help animals and read about medicine, especially natural medicine, also know I’ll probably have nightmares, here I dream I’m free, I dream of days passing in my dream and telling myself oh [its] been a whole week this time it’s real, or even pinching myself in the dreams but with God’s help and the love my family and dogs, I will be fine. One more thing I would like to add and I know many won’t [believe] it, neither I would if I didn’t [experience it] myself, this place is haunted, many of us get touched and seen a little girl, a [blonde] woman, and an officer dressed in black, even women get raped by this demons, spirits, or whatever they are, its a very normal thing for mental health officers, this place needs to get closed down or a priest needs to come and help this spirits with [holy] water and prayer so they can rest in peace.
Thank you to everyone who read [these] long pages, and I again ask to please speak up if you or your family is being mistreated in [these] places, don’t stay quiet, for you and also for others, this has to stop and it’s only possible if we, the people, raise our voices and speak up!