By Susan Ferriss,

This article was written by Ginger Thompson, a reporter at Propublica where the article first appeared. Leer en Español.

Replay video: Project Lifeline hosted a panel and community discussion and interactive event, "Immigrant Children, Detention Without End?" on Friday, Sept. 28, in the Student Engagement Ballroom at the University of the Incarnate Word. Each year, as many as 90,000 immigrant children spend time in U.S. detention centers. Those who monitor the conditions say the children often are kept for months at a time in unsanitary conditions without proper medical care and are denied food and clean water. Recent proposals could make their stay in detention indefinite.

“It was painful how hungry we were.” “I begged for water for my daughter but the officials wouldn’t give her any.” “The temperature was extremely cold. Children were crying all the time. Human heat was not enough to warm the babies.” Each year in U.S. immigration detention facilities, 90,000 children are systematically deprived of food, water and basic medical care, and exposed to extreme temperatures and unsanitary conditions.