Texas state officials say they are investigating reports that an immigrant child died after leaving the privately-run detention center near Dilley, southwest of San Antonio, but Texas Department of Protective and Family Services director Hank Whitman confirmed there have been accusations, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"We have conducted 51 investigations into those facilities, and nine are still pending," Whitman said. "We have not found any that we investigated that were founded, yet."
Whitman said the problem is, an immigration lawyers group tweeted that a toddler had died soon after being discharged from the Dilley facility, and alleged the death was due to conditions in the facility, but has failed to provide any more information.
"I am going to put my law enforcement hat on now," said Whitman, who is a former Commander of the Texas Rangers. "We need to know the name of that child, so we can investigate this properly."
Whitman said if the person who tweeted the information is an attorney, then that person is an officer of the court, and has a responsibility to come forward.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has denied that a death occurred, but investigators say ICE wouldn't necessarily know if a person had died after leaving the Dilley complex.