GRIF MAG

ShowBiz & Sports News

Hot

Friday, February 6, 2026

Colton Underwood addresses “The Traitors” cyberbullying, what he wants to tell Lisa Rinna at the reunion

February 06, 2026
Colton Underwood on 'The Traitors' Euan Cherry/PEACOCK

Euan Cherry/PEACOCK

This article contains spoilers forThe Traitorsseason 4, episode 8, "A Queen Never Comes Off Her Throne."

Against all odds,Colton Underwoodsurvived every roundtable he was at onThe Traitors... but that's only because he got murdered instead.

To add insult to injury, the gayBacheloralum was killed by his own castle BFF Rob Rausch, who allowed his fellow Traitor Candiace Dillard Bassett to make the decision, knowing it would expose her own game. By not telling Candiace that Colton had been saying her name the previous night, Rob stood back and let Candiace dig her own grave with Colton's murder, resulting in her immediate banishment at the roundtable.

Now that Colton is gone fromThe Traitors,he's able to speak freely about his entire experience on the Peacock reality competition series. And he mostly wants to praise the streamer forreleasing a statement to viewers condemning cyberbullying, and asking fans to stop sending hate to the contestants online.

Colton tellsEntertainment Weeklythat the statement was not just to protect him, although he has been the target of a lot of online hate for reasons both personal and regarding how he played the game.

"The statement was really important, and I'm really proud of Peacock for standing up for its cast, and also just the people who, we're playing heightened versions of ourselves on this competition reality show," he says. "And the statement was not fully and solely for me. I know there's other members of the cast struggling and going through some hard times too. And at the end of the day, it is a game."

Colton says he's not taking the negative comments personally.

"I understand what makes this show so brilliant is everybody comes into the game with their own fans and people rooting for them, and when you get the fans' player out, you're going to have some people who aren't happy," he explains. "I'm in a place in my life right now where I have support, I have love, I have what I call human Xanax, my little baby boy running around and giving me hugs, and I focus inward on that.... Everybody knows everything about my life now. I didn't have to sort of slowly come out of the closet, I'm already out, so I'm doing well."

Below, Colton reveals the messagehe wants to tell Lisa Rinna at the upcoming reunion, how he feels about his own murder, why he wanted to be recruited as a Traitor, and more.

Colton Underwood, Rob Rausch, and Eric Nam on 'The Traitors' Euan Cherry/PEACOCK

Euan Cherry/PEACOCK

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: If you had not been murdered and gotten banished at the Roundtable instead, what would you have said in the Circle of Truth?

COLTON UNDERWOOD:To be honest with you, I've never thought of it, because if I was going to go out, I wanted to go out getting murdered. If you get banished, that sort of means, in my opinion, you didn't defend yourself well enough. You didn't play the game well enough. I would consider [getting banished] a loss at the Roundtable, and I really took a lot of pride in how I showed up there.

I didn't mind being challenged at the Roundtable — that's the whole point of the game, to just show that you could stand on business and you could bring facts and you could defend yourself, and then you can get the heat off of you.

How do you think you would have done if you hadn't been murdered? Would you have been the target at the next banishment?

The way that I played the game at that point, in order for me to make it to the end, I would've had to have been recruited. I think there would've been really a slim chance of me winning as a Faithful. I think I knew that the game that I played was big and bold and very proactive, and I knew that that was going to put a target on my back. There was only so much I could do to try to protect myself by being as loud as I could about some of the voices, but I knew ultimately if I was going to winTraitors, I had to become a Traitor.

What was your reaction to learning that your castle BFF Rob was a Traitor, and that he allowed you to be murdered to expose Candiace?

I think it was a genius move by Rob. It was, in my opinion, the best move of the game so far for him. I know he's been playing an excellent, excellent game, but the way that he handled that with precision, of letting Candiace basically dig her own grave without her even realizing that like, "Oh, Colton has been saying my name," and him holding that card, was the best play at the game so far.

Colton Underwood on 'The Traitors' Peacock

Is there anyone you're looking forward to confronting the most at the reunion?

Confronting? No. I think everybody showed up and played a great game. I think there's going to be a lot of conversations that fans are going to be very interested in hearing. I had the chance to spend time with Tiffany in New York, and I know she's going to have some questions in front of everybody for me as well, and I'll be willing to answer those.

My time on the show was so enjoyable. The fact that I got to meet these incredible people, that I was able to go against Lisa Rinna on a television show, was an honor. I just can't wait to see everyone, and I think if anything, people might have some questions for me and how I played the game. I'm excited to talk them through my strategy and how I showed up forThe Traitors.

What do you hope to say to Lisa at the reunion?

In regards to Lisa, I think what I would tell her is just it was an honor to play against her. What a fun opportunity. I know I pushed some buttons by calling her a Housewife. I now know she's so much more than that. She's a great competitor and was, in my opinion, one of the best TV nemesis. I had so much fun going against her, so I would just say it was an honor.

Additional reporting by Selena Schorken

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

Read More

Norway's Princess Mette-Marit Apologizes for Epstein Friendship: 'I Have Disappointed'

February 06, 2026
Norway's Princess Mette-Marit Apologizes for Epstein Friendship: 'I Have Disappointed'

Rune Hellestad - Corbis/Getty; Davidoff Studios/Getty

People (Left) Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway attends Queen Sonja's Art Stable on June 23, 2025 in Oslo, Norway; (Right) Jeffrey Epstein at an event at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 22, 1997 Rune Hellestad - Corbis/Getty; Davidoff Studios/Getty 

NEED TO KNOW

  • Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway has apologized for her "friendship" with Jeffrey Epstein

  • Email correspondence between the Crown Princess, 52, and Epstein were released by the U.S. Department of Justice in its latest batch of Epstein files on Jan. 30

  • Crown Prince Haakon also spoke out on Friday in support of his wife

Crown Princess Mette-Maritof Norway is officially apologizing for her friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

On Feb. 6, the Royal House of Norway released a newstatementfrom the Crown Princess, 52. The update came one week after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)publishedover three million additional pages related to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, including what appeared to be emails between Mette-Marit and Epstein that indicated a friendship.

"I would like to express my deepest regret for my friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. It is important for me to apologize to all of you that I have disappointed," began the statement from Crown Princess Mette-Marit, translated into English.

"Some of the content of the messages between Epstein and me does not represent the person I want to be. I also apologize for the situation that I have put the Royal Family in, especially the King and Queen," she continued, referring to her in-laws,King HaraldandQueen Sonja.

(Left) Crown Princess Mette-Marit on Jan. 28, 2026; Right) Jeffrey Epstein on Sept. 8, 2004. Rune Hellestad - Corbis/Corbis via Getty; Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty

Rune Hellestad - Corbis/Corbis via Getty; Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty

Mette-Marit's apology was shared within a longer statement from the Royal House of Norway, which underscored her regret about her association with Epstein. The disgraced American financier was a convicted sex offender who died in prison while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges in August 2019.

According to an English translation, the statement from the palace began, "We understand the strong reactions people have to what has emerged in recent days. The Crown Princess strongly disavows Epstein's abuse and criminal acts. She is very sorry for not having understood early enough what kind of person he was."

"The Crown Princess wants to tell about what happened and explain herself in more detail. She cannot do that now. The Crown Princess is in a very demanding situation," it continued. "She hopes for understanding that she needs time to gather herself."

The difficult predicament that the palace referenced could have been an allusion to the ongoing court case involving her son, Marius Borg Høiby. Marius, 29, is Crown Princess Mette-Marit's son from a relationship prior to her marriage toCrown Prince Haakon, and heheaded to trial this week on Feb. 3on 38 charges, including four counts of rape.

On Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape and one count of domestic violence, and pleaded guilty to offensive sexual behavior, speeding and driving without a valid license,Reuterssaid.

A court sketch depicts Marius Borg Hoiby (C) with his defence lawyers Ellen Holager Andenaes (L) and Petar Sekulic (2ndR) during the third day of a trial at the District Court in Oslo, Norway, on Feb. 6, 2026. Ane Hem / NTB / AFP via Getty

Ane Hem / NTB / AFP via Getty

In December 2025, the palace also announced that the princess was being assessed for a lung transplant amid a "clear worsening" of her health. Mette-Marit haschronic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease that occurs when lung tissue becomes scarred, and lung transplants are an option for treatment.

Advertisement

The palace's Feb. 6 statement also outlined Crown Princess Mette-Marit'sJan. 31 mea culpaabout regretting her contact with Epstein and detailed that she met Epstein in "social contexts, most of them in the United States." It also included Mette-Marit's December 2019 statementdisavowing her links to Epstein, a remark she released after then-Prince Andrewannounced hisstep back from his royal rolefollowing a damaging BBC interview about his ties to Epstein.

On Friday, Crown Prince Haakon, 52, spoke out to the press about the scandals affecting his family and his ongoing support for his wife. The future king of Norway "asked a large press corps to gather" before he spoke, opening up amid an official visit to Oslo Sami kindergarten,NRKreported.

"When there is a lot happening at once, as it has been for our family now, I am a little concerned that we must have the priorities in the right order," the outlet reported that Crown Prince Haakon said, per an English translation.

"For me, the most important thing in recent days has been to take care of the flock. We support Marius in the situation he is in, we look after the other children – they must also be looked after – and I have to look after and take care of the Crown Princess," he continued. "Fortunately, she takes care of me too."

Haakon acknowledged the attention around Mette-Marit and stressed that she wanted to respond.

Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit on their way to a gala dinner at dinner Oslo on April 8, 2025. Fredrik Varfjell/NTB via AP

Fredrik Varfjell/NTB via AP

Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage?Sign up for our free Royals newsletterto get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

"The Crown Princess understands that there are many who want to hear from her. She would like to tell. But now she can't. And I also tell her that she is not allowed to," he said. "She would like to tell more about the case, and we hope there is understanding that she needs some time."

The prince's mention of children referencedPrincess Ingrid Alexandra, 21, and Prince Sverre Magnus, 20, his daughter and son whom he shares with his wife.

At this time, Crown Prince Haakon is acting as regent while his father, King Harald, 88, is in Italy for the Winter Olympics.

Read the original article onPeople

Read More

Halle Berry is engaged to Van Hunt, shows off ring on 'Tonight Show'

February 06, 2026
Halle Berry is engaged to Van Hunt, shows off ring on 'Tonight Show'

Halle Berryis ready to tie the knot.

USA TODAY

The Oscar-winning actress, 59,revealed during anappearance on "The Tonight Show"Thursday that she and longtimepartner Van Huntare engaged.

Berrytold host Jimmy Fallon that fans were mischaracterizing her relationship.  "There's some confusion that he asked to marry me, and I said no,"Berrysaid. "That's not the case."

She continued, "I did not say 'no,' we just don't have a date. Of course, I said yes, I would marry him."

Berry went on to hold out her hand to dazzle Fallon with what could only be described as a multi-karat sparkler.

Actress Halle Berry during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.

"He did put a little ring on it," she quipped.

Berry and Hunt have been linked for five years, first going public with their relationship in 2020.

Advertisement

Once she and Hunt make it down the aisle, this will be Berry's fourth marriage. The "Monster's Ball" actress was married to former MLB player David Justice, from 1993 to 1997; then singer-actor Eric Benét, from 2001 to 2005, and finally Olivier Martinez from 2013 to 2016.

Van Hunt and Halle Berry attend the red carpet on the closing night of the Red Sea International Film Festival 2023 on Dec. 7, 2023, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Hunt, a singer, has been divorced once.

Berry previously gushed about her relationship with Hunt in a 2024 appearance on "Today with Jenna & Friends."

"We've been doing this for five years together, so this is like the longest relationship I've ever had," Berry said. "When you find your person, you find your person. And now I've found my person, finally."

She went on to explain how she was set up with Hunt in 2020 by his brother, who worked for her menopause care-focused company, Respin. They established a friendship while socially distancing, Berry explained.

<p style=Cue the wedding bells: Romance is taking center stage in 2026 as these celebrities marked the next chapter in their love stories with engagements and marriages.


After stars like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement last year, eyes are on what other celebrities will tie the knot.

Actress-turned-singer Dove Cameron and Måneskin frontman Damiano David kicked off 2026 by announcing their engagement on a Jan. 3 Instagram post.

"the 2 best years of my life. i am brought to tears at least once a week because life has become so beautiful with you in it. i love you in a way no words could ever express, but i will never stop trying," Cameron wrote sharing a gallery of the pair shamelessly showing affection toward one another.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Vanna White married her longtime partner, John Donaldson, in a private ceremony after more than 14 years together.

The "Wheel of Fortune" co-host revealed her newlywed status on social media on Jan. 21 with a photo of her husband carrying her bridal-style as she's wearing a beaded white gown.

"Surprise! We got married!" she wrote.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Rick Harrison kicked off 2026 by adding a wedding band to his ring finger. The 60-year-old "Pawn Stars" patriarch married fiancée Angie Polushkin, a 42-year-old nurse, on Jan. 3, Harrison's representative confirmed to USA TODAY.

The couple told People and TMZ that they'd exchanged their "I dos" in front of an Elvis impersonator at Las Vegas' Little White Chapel. A bigger wedding celebration will take place later in January, the couple told People, with Harrison revealing to TMZ that the event will take place in Cancún, Mexico. The couple, who'd met at the beginning of 2024, previously revealed their engagement in March.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Video game producer John-Michael Sudsina and comedian Joel Kim Booster got married after meeting in 2021, the New York Times reported on Jan. 13.

The pair held their wedding at the Exploratorium, an interactive science museum in San Francisco, on Dec. 30, 2025.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

Vanna White, Dove Cameron and more celeb engagements, marriages in 2026

Cue the wedding bells: Romance is taking center stage in 2026 as these celebrities marked the next chapter in their love stories with engagements and marriages.After stars likeTaylor SwiftandTravis Kelceannounced their engagement last year, eyes are on what other celebrities will tie the knot.Actress-turned-singerDove Cameronand Måneskin frontmanDamiano Davidkicked off 2026 by announcing their engagement on a Jan. 3Instagram post."the 2 best years of my life. i am brought to tears at least once a week because life has become so beautiful with you in it. i love you in a way no words could ever express, but i will never stop trying," Cameron wrote sharing a gallery of the pair shamelessly showing affection toward one another.

"Before we ever got together in any physical way, I had fallen madly in love just through talking and telling and sharing every single thing," she said.

Contributing: KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Halle Berry engaged to Van Hunt, shows off ring on 'Tonight Show'

Read More

Thousands of M&M’s packages recalled by FDA across nearly two dozen states

February 06, 2026
Thousands of M&M's packages recalled by FDA across nearly two dozen states

Thousands of units of M&M's products are being recalled across more than a dozen states because their packaging does not include proper allergen warnings.

The Independent US

The recall wasannounced by the Food & Drug Administrationafter it emerged that more than 6,000 units had been repackaged by Beacon Promotions Inc. without advisories that they may contain milk, soy and peanuts.

It was first issued on January 26, and on Wednesday, the FDA classified the recall as Class II, meaning consuming the product could cause "temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences."

However, the recall only affects consumers who may beallergic or sensitive to soy, peanuts or milk; the candies themselves are safe to eat, and those without allergies will not be affected by their consumption.

The M&M's recall only affects consumers who may be allergic or sensitive to soy, peanuts or milk. (iStock file image)

The M&M's in question were distributed in packaging that was labelled for promotional purposes,according to the FDA,and could contain any of the following promotional labels or packages:

Advertisement

Next Up; Smith Pro; Jaxport, Jacksonville Port Authority; Climax Molybdenum, A Freeport-McMoRan Company; University of Maryland, School of Public Policy; Liberty University Environmental Health & Safety; Subaru; Trinity Cyb3r; Candy Treats; JSE, Jordan & Skala Engineers; Dropbox DocSend; PP, Prosperity Promotions; Northwest Indian College Foundation; FES Branding Solutions; Berkshire Hathaway Guard Insurance Companies; merry maids Annual 26 Conference; BW, Best Western; Morgan Stanley; tufin; Compliments of Pioneer; A.D. Morgan, Construction Manager, Design Builder, General Contractor; Adobe; Xfinity; Fundermax Interiors; White Cup; Acadia Commercial; Aviagen; ORG Expo; and Make Your Mark.

The recalled repackaged M&M's Peanut candies can be identified by the "Make Your Mark" label with lot code M1823200 and a "best by" date of April 30, 2026.

Regular M&M's candies being recalled all have the lot code L450ARCLV03 with a "best by" date of December 1, 2025; the lot code L502FLHKP01 with a "best by" date of January 1, 2026; the lot code L523CMHKP01 with a "best by" date of June 30, 2026; or the lot code L537GMHKP01 with a "best by" date of September 1, 2026.

They were distributed in the following 20 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Anyone who has the products in question and is allergic to or sensitive to nuts, soy, or milk should throw them away. Those who are not allergic or sensitive can safely consume them.

HPG Brands, the parent company of Beacon Promotions Inc., did not immediately respond to requests for comment on how the labelling mix-up had occurred.

Read More

Children trapped in Texas immigration facility recount nightmares, inedible food, no school

February 06, 2026
Children trapped in Texas immigration facility recount nightmares, inedible food, no school

Before she arrived at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center last fall, Kelly Vargas said, her 6-year-old daughter was thriving. Maria loved school and spent her afternoons drawing and playing with her cat.

NBC Universal Yerson Paul Herrera Vargas holds his six-year-old daughter, Maria Paula Herrera Vargas, as her mother, Kelly Vargas, looks on at the place where the family is staying after being deported from the United States, in Bogota, Colombia, on Nov. 19, 2025. (Luisa Gonzalez / Reuters file)

But Vargas said that within days of the family's being detained and sent to the prisonlike facility in South Texas — where guards patrol the halls and the lights never turn off — her daughter began to unravel.

After years without accidents, Maria started wetting her pants and her bed. She cried through the night, asking when she and her parents would return to their apartment in New York. She begged to start breastfeeding again.

Vargas, who was deported to Colombia with her family in November after having spent nearly two months at Dilley, said she never imagined the United States could act so callously.

"How are they going to do this to a child?" Vargas told NBC News, speaking in Spanish. "How could this happen here?"

Accounts from detained families, their lawyers and court filings describe the federal detention center in Dilley as a place where hundreds of children languish as they're served contaminated food, receive little education and struggle to obtain basic medical care.

The center was thrust into the national spotlight last month after Immigration and Customs Enforcementtook Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy, to the facility following his father's arrest in Minneapolis — an encounter captured in a photograph showing the boy in a blue bunny hat as he was taken into federal custody.

The image ricocheted across the country, igniting outrage from lawmakers and the public. To many Americans, it was a sudden introduction to the harsh realities of ICE'sincreasing reliance on family detention. But to Vargas and the lawyers who have spent months tracking conditions at Dilley, Liam's fearful expression — andhis father's accountof the child falling ill while detained — captured something painfully familiar.

appeared to show him being escorted by an ICE agent into a vehicle. (Courtesy Columbia Heights Public Schools)

"Liam is all the kids there," said Becky Wolozin, a senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, which monitors conditions at the facility under a long-standing federal court settlement. "Just like Liam, we've had families tell us how their children have been horribly sick and throwing up repeatedly, refusing to eat and becoming despondent and listless."

Those concerns have taken on new urgency in recent days after health officials confirmedtwo measles cases among people detainedat Dilley. Advocates and medical experts warn that a highly contagious disease spreading inside a crowded facility housing young children — some already medically vulnerable — poses an acute public-health risk.

Lawyers representing families at Dilley say they have struggled to get clear answers from the Department of Homeland Security about the outbreak, including any steps being taken to limit its spread or verify whether children are vaccinated.

DHS didn't answer questions from NBC News about conditions at Dilley. It has defended its use of family detention, saying in statements and legal filings that detainees are provided basic necessities and that officials work to ensure children and adults are safe.

Ryan Gustin, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, whichhas a contractto run the facility that's expected to bring in $180 million annually, referred questions about Dilley to DHS and said in a statement that "the health and safety of those entrusted to our care" is the company's top priority.

Since April, when the federal governmentresumed large-scale family detentionas part of the Trump administration's vow to dramatically escalate immigration arrests and deportations, an estimated 1,800 children had passed through Dilley as of December, according to figures provided by court-appointed monitors. About 345 children were being held there with parents that month, Wolozin said. Some families remain for a few weeks; others have been detained for more than six months.

Family detention was common during the Obama administration, and it expanded in President Donald Trump's first term, before being largely halted under President Joe Biden. Unlike earlier iterations of family detention, many of the children now held at Dilley are U.S. residents, apprehended not at the border but at their homes, outside schools, in courthouses and during routine immigration check-ins.

A dense crowd of hundreds of people wearing raincoats and hoods is seen from an aerial perspective. Many of them are holding signs. (Brenda Bazán / AP)

The Trump administration has argued the practice allows parents and children to remain together while removal proceedings are pending. But advocates and human rights groups say detaining children is harmful and never warranted, noting that families with pending immigration cases have historically been allowed to remain together outside detention, including through the use of ankle monitors.

The overwhelming majority of parents detained with children are sent to Dilley, a sprawling complex set amid scrubland an hour south of San Antonio, far from the communities where the families had been living.

As immigration lawyers began sounding the alarm about conditions at the facility, the Trump administrationfiled a motion last springtooverturn a decades-old legal settlementrequiring basic rights for immigrant children in federal custody — safeguards that advocates say DHS is already violating. The protections, known as the Flores Settlement Agreement,trace back to a 1985 class-action lawsuitagainst the federal government alleging that immigrant children were being held in unsafe conditions.

Interviews with immigration lawyers, Liam's father and the Vargas family and dozens of sworn declarations from detained familiesfiled as part of the recent Flores litigationdescribe a facility that functions far more like a prison than a child care center: constant surveillance, rigid schedules, overnight bed checks. Parents report that many children stop eating, lose weight and become withdrawn.

A man holding a sign reading SAVE THE KIDS stands among a crowd of fellow protesters. (Eric Gay / AP file)

Families describe sleeping in crowded, dorm-style rooms with little privacy and filthy shared bathrooms. Outdoor areas are largely concrete and tightly supervised, parents say, and there are few toys or activities to occupy children indoors.

"It is a prison where we are keeping children as young as 1 year old," said Elora Mukherjee, a professor at Columbia Law School and director of its Immigrants' Rights Clinic, who has represented several detained families. "We're keeping children there who are currently breastfeeding. It's unconscionable."

Food is a recurring source of distress. Court filings describe meals that are greasy, heavily seasoned or inappropriate for preschoolers and infants. Several parents said they found worms or mold. Some children survive largely on crackers and juice. One mother said she resorted to sucking pasta sauce off noodles for her child, hoping he would eat.

Advertisement

"My younger son does not eat the food here, he is hungry all the time," another mother wrote in a sworn declaration submitted to federal court. "He will only accept breastmilk and it is not enough for him. He is growing. He is two and a half, and he needs to eat."

Parents of children too young to grasp what was happening said they struggled to keep up a facade of normality. Adrián Alexander Conejo Arias, Liam's father,told Noticias Telemundohepassed the time by retelling storiesfrom episodes of "Bluey," the popular children's show about a family of blue heeler dogs, and recounting happy memories. He could do little else "except hug him and tell him everything would be OK," Conejo said.

A hand holds a child's drawing on a sheet of white paper. Another drawing lies beside it on a table.  (Luisa Gonzalez / Reuters file)

Education is an afterthought at Dilley, parents and lawyers say. Children get no more than an hour of daily instruction, and overcrowding means some are turned away. The work consists largely of worksheets and coloring pages, parents say. Older children say they're bored, falling behind and missing their teachers and classmates.

"Inside the classroom, there are two women laughing in English and watching YouTube," a 14-year-old detainee wrote in a sworn declaration. "I was in 9th grade before I came here. If I had to go back to my country now, I'd have to repeat the grade because of all the school I've lost."

Medical care also is often cursory, families report, even when children show signs of serious illness or injury. In several cases described in court declarations, children — including some with developmental delays or chronic conditions — regressed while they were detained, losing language skills, wetting themselves or engaging in self-harm. Some parents said their complaints were dismissed until their children's conditions worsened significantly.

Eric Lee, an immigration attorney who has represented families at Dilley, described a child suffering from appendicitis who collapsed in pain after having been denied meaningful medical attention. The child passed out in a hallway vomiting and writhing, Lee said, only to be offered Tylenol.

Two children's drawings are displayed in a diptych image. (via Eric Lee, Lee & Goshall-Bennett, LLP)

The psychological toll can be just as severe. During a recent visit, Lee said, a 5-year-old girl described a recurring nightmare: A large animal chases her, but she can't outrun it because she's trapped in a cage.

She and her siblings "wake up crying for their mom every night because they're worried they're going to get separated from her," Lee said.

Lawyers representing detainees argue that prolonged confinement in harsh conditions — coupled with repeated warnings about family separation — is meant to coerce parents into abandoning pending asylum claims that could allow them to remain in the U.S.

DHS tells detained families, "Well, if you want this to stop, agree to give up your case," said Javier Hidalgo, legal director for RAICES, which provides legal support for immigrant families in Texas, including at Dilley. "We've heard that time and time again."

Kelly Vargas said she and her husband felt that pressure from the moment they arrived at Dilley with their daughter, Maria.

Kelly Vargas with her husband Yerson Herrera and daughter Maria. (Kelly Vargas)

The family came to the U.S. in 2022 after having fled Colombia and settled in New York, where they checked in regularly with immigration officials. They had applied for special visas for human trafficking victims,saying they were subjected to forced laborand death threats while they were traveling through Mexico.

After they were arrested during a September check-in and sent to Dilley, Vargas said, officers repeatedly pressured her and her husband to drop their visa applications.

"He told us that if we didn't deport ourselves, they were going to take our daughter from us," she said. "Our daughter would be left in the custody of the state, where not even our lawyers would know where she was."

At first, Vargas said, she and her husband resisted, determined to fight for the life they had built in New York, where he worked in construction during the day and she worked as a waitress and cleaner overnight. They initially told Maria they were on vacation in Texas, but the girl knew better. She would drop to her knees and beg to go home to see her cat, Milo. At times, Vargas said, she screamed so intensely that even staff members appeared shaken.

Maria and Milo (Kelly Vargas)

"Get me out of here," she would cry. "I want to leave."

Maria's health quickly declined, Vargas said. She developed a persistent cough and struggled to eat, losing weight as the days passed. Then, Vargas said, a staff member who was cleaning accidentally struck her daughter in the eye with a mop, drawing blood.

Despite her daughter's continued complaints of blurred vision, sensitivity to light and hearing problems, Vargas said, doctors dismissed her concerns and delayed further evaluation.

With her daughter ailing, Vargas said, she and her husband finally agreed to leave.

They were deported to Colombia in November.

Healing from the ordeal has taken longer, Vargas said. Maria still has vision problems and headaches. The sweet girl who loved her teacher and played with Barbies is now fearful and withdrawn, talking often about her weeks in Texas and the workers who watched over her.

Whenever she sees a police officer, she tenses.

"It's the bad men," she says.

Read More