Kristen Dauss, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, CoreCivic

In recent weeks, I’ve heard concerns, including from some colleagues in the medical community, about the health and welfare of children and their families in CoreCivic’s Dilley Immigration Processing Center (DIPC). As the physician providing strategic direction for care delivery, I want to offer a response grounded in the clinical and human reality I witness every day.

I became a doctor for the same reasons many of my colleagues did: to serve those who are most vulnerable and most overlooked. That commitment is precisely what brought me to CoreCivic. Serving underserved populations is my life's work, and it’s present in every aspect of how I approach the care we deliver.

The children and their families at DIPC receive care that is clinically rigorous, federally overseen and delivered with dignity. I want to be specific about what that means in practice:

• • That means access to potable water (tested by independent third parties and regularly consumed by staff), appropriate nutrition and hygiene supplies.
  • It means timely medical evaluation by providers trained in pediatrics, including general pediatricians, child and adolescent psychiatrists, therapists and psychologists.
  • It means trauma-informed mental health screening at intake, using validated clinical tools, with ongoing reassessment and access to continued support.
  • It means an interdisciplinary team, including nurses, dentists, advanced practice providers and specialists, operating within a medical home model to ensure continuity of care.

We’re acutely aware that children in these circumstances carry a particular kind of vulnerability. Our approach reflects that. Children have access to educational programming, structured recreation and creative activities, not as amenities, but because we understand the clinical role that stability, routine and connection play in supporting resilience and reducing harm.

I also want to be clear about something that’s often absent from these conversations: family residential centers have operated under federal authority since the Obama administration. CoreCivic does not set or enforce immigration law. But we do ensure that every person in our care — as determined by the federal government — receives safe, humane and appropriate treatment while that law is administered.

I understand that accounts circulating online and in the press paint a different picture. I take those accounts seriously because I take child welfare seriously. What I would ask of people — including my medical colleagues who share a commitment to evidence and accuracy — is to reckon honestly with complexity and to resist the pull toward conclusions drawn entirely from a distance.

It's easy, and perhaps emotionally satisfying, to condemn from the outside. It’s harder, and I believe more meaningful to be present in these environments, doing the work required to care for people who need it most. That’s where I am, every day.