Dozens of high-profile names are pushing the federal government to close a controversial ICE facility holding children and their parents in Texas in unclear conditions
A group of major Hollywood figures, including Pedro Pascal, Madonna, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, America Ferrera, Elliot Page, and Jane Fonda, have signed an open letter urging the federal government to shut down the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
The facility, operated by ICE, has been used to detain children alongside their parents. The Hollywood A-list letter opens with a clear statement of purpose, “No child should be locked in an immigration detention center.”
The list of signees extends well beyond just actors. Additional names include John Legend, Brandi Carlile, Hannah Einbinder, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Porter, Keke Palmer, Hasan Minhaj, Katie Couric, and Susan Sarandon, along with dozens of others.
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They are also joining forces with children’s content creator Rachel Accurso, widely known as Ms. Rachel, who has recently drawn attention for speaking directly with detained children via video calls and advocating publicly for the closure of the Dilley facility.
Conditions at the center have come under scrutiny. According to reporting cited in the letter, “Children have complained of limited education, lights that never turn off and moldy food” at Dilley. During the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, “more than 2,300 children” were placed into detention with their parents, with “the overwhelming majority held at Dilley, according to figures provided by court-appointed monitors. Many have been held for several weeks or months.”
The open letter lays out further allegations, stating, “Children held in immigration detention endure trauma, neglect and conditions that violate basic standards of health, safety, dignity and human rights.”
It continues with specific claims, including “refusals to provide clean water, rotten food contaminated with worms, dangerous medical neglect, sleep deprivation, denial of legal counsel, the separation of children from their families, and retaliation against families protesting the inhumane conditions. Children belong in schools and on playgrounds, not in detention centers.”
The letter concludes with a direct appeal, “We urge the federal government and CoreCivic to close the Dilley facility immediately, return children and families to the homes and communities they were taken from and to end child imprisonment now. Our commitment does not end with closure. We demand transparency, accountability, and systemic reforms to prevent these abuses from happening anywhere in the United States.”
Accurso’s involvement stems from her own encounters with detained families. She learned about the facility after federal agents detained the father of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in Minneapolis and sent both father and child to Dilley.
She later spoke via video call with 9-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez, who had been detained with his parents in early March. It was her second such call, following an earlier conversation with a 5-year-old named Gael.
Reflecting on the experience, Accurso told NBC News, “It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail. It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life…We’re trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee. I just never thought those words would go together.”
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