Pedro Pascal, Madonna, and Mark Ruffalo, among others, are demanding that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas be shut down. “Children belong in schools and on playgrounds, not in detention centers,” an open letter — signed by several Hollywood insiders — lectured.
“No child should be locked in an immigration detention center,” read a Change.org petition, before calling for “the immediate closure of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center,” an ICE family detention center in Texas, and an overall “end to the detention of children and families.”
The open letter — also signed by Javier Bardem, John Legend, Elliot Page, and Jane Fonda — went on to claim children being held in immigration detention facilities experience “trauma” and “neglect” that “violate basic standards of health, safety, dignity, and human rights.”
“Court filings of abuse against children have included 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,” the petition read.
The letter then urged “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,” the petition concluded.
Other signees include Billy Porter, America Ferrera, Brandi Carlile, Hannah Einbinder, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Wunmi Mosaku, Keke Palmer, Hasan Minhaj, Katie Couric, and Susan Sarandon.
The petition was started by YouTuber Rachel Anne Accurso — known simply as Ms. Rachel — who declared last week that she is temporarily moving on from supporting the cause of Hamas-led Palestine to now take aim at President Donald Trump and ICE.
Notably, Ms. Rachel discovered the existence of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in January, after a photo of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos — wearing a blue bunny hat — went viral, according to a report by NBC News.
As Breitbart News reported, that photo was accompanied by an establishment media claim — circulated repeatedly by Democrats online — that ICE agents had arrested Ramos in Minneapolis.
The claim went viral after Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) posted a local news article in which Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik suggested ICE took custody of a five-year-old boy who was being driven to school by his illegal alien father.
In reality, ICE agents said they had no choice but to stay with Ramos after his illegal alien father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, took off — leaving his young child behind — as agents approached his vehicle.
“I do a little bit more follow-up research, and what I find is that the five-year-old was not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien, and when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran,” Vice President JD Vance said during a January press conference in Minneapolis.
“So the story is that ICE detained a five-year-old,” the vice president continued. “Well, what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?”
“If the argument is that you can’t arrest people who’ve violated the laws because they have children, then every single parent is going to be given complete immunity from ever being a subject of law enforcement,” Vance added. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.