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At 2:04 p.m. on Oct. 15, a guard at the Richwood Correctional Center noticed an odd smell coming from one of the isolation cells. He opened the door, stepped inside and found the lifeless body of Roylan Hernandez-Diaz hanging from a bedsheet. The 43-year-old Cuban man had spent five months in immigration detention waiting for a judge to hear his asylum claim. As his time at Richwood dragged on, he barely answered questions from security or medical staff, who noted his “withdrawn emotional state.” He refused to eat for four days. The day after his death, 20 other detainees carried out what they say was a peaceful protest. They wrote “Justice for Roylan” on their white T-shirts, sat down in the cafeteria and refused to eat. Guards swooped in and attacked, beating one of them so severely he was taken to a hospital, according to letters written by 10 detainees that were obtained by the USA TODAY Network and interviews with two detainees’ relatives. (12/20)

The Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog found no wrongdoing or misconduct by immigration officials in the deaths of two migrant children last December. The Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security released two brief statements Friday evening on the deaths of Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin, who died Dec. 8 at age 7, and Felipe Gómez Alonzo, who died Dec. 24 at age 8. (12/20)

Each report concluded that the “investigation found no misconduct or malfeasance by DHS personnel.” Officials have said they were the first children to die in Border Patrol custody in a decade. Three other Guatemalan children, ranging in age from 2 to 16, died after being taken into Border Patrol custody in April and May. DHS officials have not released results of internal investigations into those deaths. (Moore, 12/20)

The federal agency in charge of immigrant detention has awarded multiyear contracts for private companies to run facilities in California just over a week before a new state law forbidding them goes into effect. Lawmakers in Sacramento passed a bill in September—signed the next month by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom —that bans new contracts for for-profit prison facilities beginning Jan. 1. As the legislation was being drafted, the definition was expanded to include immigrant detention, as the Trump administration’s border policies and the conditions in which it held migrants drew increasing criticism. (Lazo, 12/20)

The White House sought this month to embed immigration enforcement agents within the U.S. refugee agency that cares for unaccompanied migrant children, part of a long-standing effort to use information from their parents and relatives to target them for deportation, according to six current and former administration officials. Though senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services rejected the attempt, they agreed to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to collect fingerprints and other biometric information from adults seeking to claim migrant children at government shelters. (Miroff, 12/20)

Under a canopy on the edge of a squalid encampment, a young physician named Dairon Elisondo Rojas holds office hours every day from 10 to 4. On a recent afternoon, he saw children with diarrhea, colds and asthma, among other ailments. Some he examined, treated and sent on their way with cough or cold medicine. For those who required special care, like a boy with a broken leg, Dr. Elisondo arranged a transfer to the local Mexican hospital. (Jordan and Ferman, 12/22)

The number of migrant children living in Texas shelters has fallen to its lowest point in two years, a dramatic change after a hardline but short-lived federal immigration policy last year overwhelmed the state’s shelter network and led thousands of children to linger for extended periods in temporary shelters. These shelters are where some unaccompanied minors go after leaving temporary U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities if officials cannot find U.S.-based sponsors to take them in. (Walters, Murphy and Cameron, 12/20)