Pastor leads four-day, 90-mile walk from Dilley to San Antonio to protest family detentions
A four-day march ties South Texas detention sites to downtown immigration court
A San Antonio pastor and a small group of faith leaders and advocates began a 90-mile walk this week from Dilley to San Antonio, framing the trek as a public protest against the detention of immigrant families and children in federal custody. The walk is scheduled to conclude Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, with a rally outside the San Antonio Immigration Court downtown.
The march is led by Rev. Dianne Garcia of Iglesia Christiana Roca de Refugio, a South Side Mennonite congregation that operates a nonprofit ministry serving immigrants. Organizers described the effort as a peaceful prayer walk and invited the public to join the final day’s route into the city.
Route and planned stops
Organizers said the group planned to cover roughly 25 miles per day, moving north along the Interstate 35 corridor. The schedule includes a stop at the detention facility in Dilley, where families are held while their immigration cases proceed. The final day is set to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Quintana Road location where 53 migrants died in 2022 after being transported in a tractor-trailer. The march is expected to end with an afternoon rally outside the immigration court on Dolorosa Street.
Start: Dilley area (Frio County), with a planned stop near the Dilley detention facility
Final-day gathering point: Quintana Road memorial site tied to the June 27, 2022, tractor-trailer deaths
End: Rally outside the San Antonio Immigration Court on Saturday afternoon
Why Dilley is central to the protest
The Dilley facility is part of the federal immigration detention network overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In recent years, the Dilley site—often described as a family detention center—has been used to hold parents and children together. The facility’s status has shifted over time, including an idling period in 2024 followed by a resumption of operations in 2025 under agreements involving federal authorities and private contractors.
Garcia and allied groups said the march is intended to spotlight the effects of detention on children and the practical challenges families face while confined, including access to legal support and the disruption of daily life.
Organizers and stated goals
Participants include national and local advocacy networks and faith-based partners. Organizers said the march is meant to draw public attention to family detention and to encourage community engagement with immigration legal proceedings and support services.
The walk is being presented by organizers as a public, peaceful demonstration focused on the continued detention of children and parents in immigration custody.
Local context and broader policy debate
The march arrives amid renewed national debate over the use of detention for families as immigration cases move through the court system. Federal practice has shifted across administrations, with periods of reduced family detention and periods of expanded capacity. Advocates opposing detention argue it harms children’s well-being and should be replaced with community-based alternatives, while supporters of detention argue it is a mechanism to manage immigration proceedings and compliance requirements.
Saturday’s rally is expected to connect the march’s route to the place where many immigration cases are ultimately decided in the region: the downtown court building where families’ legal futures may be determined.