Juan Nicolás Is Two Months Old. This Is What Happened to Him.
A hospitalized infant, a deported family, and the congressional offices that heard from their constituents on February 17 and the ones that didn’t.
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SUMMARY
Two-month-old infant, Juan Nicolás, spent nearly half his life detained at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. This week he was hospitalized for bronchitis and serious respiratory illness, discharged, returned to detention, and then deported to Mexico with his family in the same day, according to U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro. On the same day this circulated, constituents in nearly 100 congressional districts showed up at their representatives’ offices demanding impeachment and the abolition of ICE. Some offices logged the visits. Others, like Rep. Nancy Mace’s in South Carolina, reportedly didn’t answer the phone at all.
Juan Nicolás has been alive for just eight weeks.
For nearly half of those weeks, three and a half of them, he was held with his mother inside the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, a family immigration detention facility operated under contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
This week, Juan Nicolás was hospitalized.
He had developed bronchitis, along with persistent vomiting and serious breathing problems.
After receiving treatment, he was discharged from the hospital and returned back to the detention facility where he had spent half his life.
Shortly afterward, according to U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro reported that Juan Nicolás, his mother, his father, and his 16-month-old sister were deported to Mexico. According to Rep. Castro, they were abandoned across the border.
A two-month-old, just released from the hospital for a serious respiratory illness, was transported across an international border and left.
What Else We Know About Dilley
The South Texas Family Residential Center is not a new concern.
Lawmakers and advocates have raised repeated alarms about the adequacy of medical care at this specific facility, particularly during illness outbreaks and emergencies involving children.
Lawmakers have also linked the facility to a measles outbreak in recent weeks.
Juan Nicolás’s case reflects broader structural features of the detention system, one that has faced sustained scrutiny over its treatment of children and families in medical distress.
National Day of Lobbying | February 17 (Yesterday)
On the same day Juan Nicolás’s story circulated online, constituents in nearly 100 congressional districts across the country walked into or attempted to walk into the local offices of their U.S. House representatives as part of a coordinated National Day of Lobbying, organized by Citizens’ Impeachment, FLARE USA, and 50501.
The demands: begin impeachment proceedings and Abolish ICE.
In South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, constituents from Indivisible Charleston, 50501, and the Charleston DSA called Rep. Nancy Mace’s office multiple times before February 17 to request a formal meeting, according to a press release reported by Holy City Sinner. According to organizers, repeated calls and meeting requests went unanswered. When the day arrived, the groups held a press conference on the sidewalk outside Mace’s building. The groups involved represent local organizing networks across Charleston County.
Constitutional Framing
H.Res.353 is currently before Congress, carrying seven formal articles of impeachment: obstruction of justice, usurpation of Congress’s appropriations power, abuse of trade powers, violation of First Amendment rights, creation of an unlawful office, bribery and corruption, and tyranny.
Just days before February 17, the House voted to table an impeachment resolution introduced by Rep. Al Green, with Democratic leadership voting present, as reported by The Hill on February 13.
This procedural posture is why constituents showed up in person at district offices this week. And the case for “not now” grows harder to make with each day that passes.
Is Cruelty Their Point?
The response to Juan Nicolás’s story across this community has been immediate and obvious. A government that detains a sick infant for weeks, discharges him from a hospital, and deports his family across a border raises profound questions about how we are operating as a country. Is cruelty their point?
What February 17 was, imperfectly, in closed offices and sidewalk press conferences and logged constituent visits across dozens of districts, was an attempt to put that anger somewhere it can be useful. Into staff notes, contact logs and into the public record of who responded and who wouldn’t even bother to answer their phone.
What To Watch For
If Juan Nicolás’s situation produce any formal congressional response. Whether members who received constituents on February 17 issue public statements referencing those visits. If the Dilley facility’s reported measles situation accelerates any oversight action. And whether the active impeachment resolutions currently sitting in committee gain any movement before the next funding deadline.
If you want to follow how this develops in Congress, the votes, the procedural maneuvers, and the constituent pressure behind them, that is exactly what this publication tracks. Subscribe and share to help grow awareness.
If you visited a congressional office yesterday, February 17th, tell us what happened. Was the office open? What did staff say? Did you call? How did it go?
Sources & Resources
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro | public statements via verified social media accounts on Juan Nicolás’s case
Holy City Sinner | “Mace Refuses to Meet with Constituents for National Day of Citizen Lobbying,” Tracey Tapp, February 12, 2026
The Hill | House tables Trump impeachment resolution, Democratic leaders vote present, February 13, 2026
Citizens’ Impeachment | February 17 National Day of Lobbying
Congress.gov | H.Res.353, 119th Congress, Articles of Impeachment
Mobilize.us | Event listings
Fiftyfifty.one | 50501 Resources
This is who we've become. Fearing, shunning, rejecting what we consider the "other." This hate of those different will return to us 10 fold...AND we'll deserved. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves!
Seemingly, most of US would rather whine on social media than get off our arses and actually make “good trouble” and I do not connote that with fear at all. Terror in America is in the process of normalizing as long as it’s You and not Me. Most of US aren’t afraid of much—we view the horrors of war, starvation, illness, and Trump as well as his predatory Cabinet daily. We are being indoctrinated and don’t even realize it! Juan Nicolas isn’t the first baby disregarded and he won’t be the last until WE rise up in large numbers about it. This will require more action than a quarterly March. It will require Action on the majority’s part—actually doing something other than texting. I don’t know why people aren’t sick and tired of the antics in the US; but I do know this: the Power for Good is All that can beat Evil and you choose.
Remember this: the Power is yours IF you take it and that Power is collective.