Pedro Pascal, Madonna and Mark Ruffalo join call to close Dilley ICE center

Dozens of Hollywood figures, including Pedro Pascal, Madonna, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Fonda and Javier Bardem, have signed an open letter calling on the federal government and private prison operator CoreCivic to immediately shut down the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement family detention facility in Dilley, Texas.

“No child should be locked in an immigration detention center,” the letter states, adding that children held at the facility “endure trauma, neglect and conditions that violate basic standards of health, safety, dignity and human rights.” The letter calls for the facility’s closure, the return of detained families to their communities and broader systemic reforms to prevent similar conditions elsewhere in the country.

The letter also cites court filings alleging that detained children have been denied clean water, served food contaminated with worms, subjected to dangerous medical neglect and sleep deprivation, denied legal counsel and separated from family members.

Other signatories include John Legend, Elliot Page, America Ferrera, Brandi Carlile, Hannah Einbinder, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu, Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Porter, Keke Palmer, Hasan Minhaj, Katie Couric and Susan Sarandon, among others.

The petition was initiated by children’s entertainer Rachel Anne Accurso, widely known as Ms. Rachel, who has spoken publicly about video calls she held with children detained at the facility.

More than 2,300 children have been put into detention with their parents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, with a large share held at Dilley, according to figures from court-appointed monitors. Many have been held for several weeks or months.

A March court filing by attorneys representing children in federal detention, who have visited the facility nine times since it opened, stated that conditions have not improved and that hundreds of children had been held beyond the legal 20-day limit. In a separate filing, attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security said children at Dilley are housed in conditions that are safe, sanitary and appropriate, with compliant medical care, education and recreation.

The South Texas Family Residential Center, also known as the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, first opened in December 2014 with a capacity of 2,400 and is operated by CoreCivic under contract with ICE. The facility was closed in June 2024 under the Biden administration before reopening in 2025.

The facility drew national attention in January after ICE agents detained 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in Minneapolis along with his father and transferred the boy to Dilley. Vice President J.D. Vance subsequently addressed the incident at a press conference, saying agents had no alternative after the boy’s father fled during an arrest attempt, leaving the child behind.