A Texas-born US citizen, 18, who was released from an immigration center after being wrongly detained for close to four weeks has said he was starved of food and wasn't able to shower.

Francisco Erwin Galicia, 18, was released on Tuesday from the South Texas Detention Facility in Pearsall, after being detained on June 27.

He has revealed that he lost 26 pounds during his time in ICE custody because officers didn't provide him with enough food.

Francisco added that he wasn't allowed to shower and that his skin was left dry and dirty.

He said the conditions were so bad that he almost asked to be self-deported.  

He had been detained at a CBP checkpoint in Falfurrias along with his brother, 17-year-old Marlon Galicia, who was born in Mexico, while en route to Ranger College in North Texas on June 27.