A New Hope: Pedro Pascal, Ms. Rachel, and Celebrities Unite to Close the Dilley ICE Center

“No child should be locked in an immigration detention center. We, the undersigned, call for the immediate closure of the Dilley ICE Detention Center.”

Pedro Pascal standing firm in the demand to end the state sponsored trauma inflicted on migrant families. When a society allows its government to lock children in cages, feed them rotten food crawling with worms, and deny them basic medical care, the social contract has not just been breached it has been completely shredded.

For the families violently torn apart, and for the children enduring sleep deprivation under fluorescent lights that never turn off inside the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the trauma is unimaginable. We must sit with that pain. We have to look at the victims of this state sanctioned terror the 5 year olds and 9 year olds locked behind concrete and razor wire and acknowledge the profound sickness of a system that treats human lives as disposable.

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If you feel overwhelmed, burned out and hopeless, then the machine has it where it needs you. Exhausted, panicking not knowing up from down. It is that despair that is concentrated and refined into an oil that keeps the gears grinding.

While this is true there is a truth that the benefactors of suffering want to hide from us all. Our collective, rage, fueled by disgust is the wrench that can seize the machine. They will not admit it but it is working. The turbines are over worked and the engine is fracturing.

The momentum is shifting because we are rejecting these atrocities.. This week, that relentless grassroots pressure breached the mainstream. The roar of the people on the ground forced the world to listen.

Dozens of high profile actors, musicians, and public figures joined Pedro Pascal in drawing a hard line in the sand, signing a blistering open letter and Change.org petition demanding that the Department of Homeland Security and private prison operator CoreCivic immediately and permanently shut down the Dilley facility in Texas.

They are not just asking for nicer cages. They are pointing directly at the rot we have been fighting and demanding total eradication. They are using their platforms to force the public to look at exactly what these institutions are doing:

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“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.” Mark Ruffalo, laying bare the documented, systemic horrors perpetrated by ICE and CoreCivic.

The most powerful beacon of hope in all of this comes from a place of pure, fierce empathy. Rachel Accurso known globally as Ms. Rachel refused to stay in a comfortable lane because the reality of what ICE is doing to children is simply too grotesque to ignore. She used her massive platform to video call 9 year old Deiver Henao Jimenez, who was locked up in Dilley after a raid, pleading just to go home for his school spelling bee.

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“It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who is in jail. It broke me,” Accurso stated. “We are trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee... I am political. It is political to believe that children are worthy of love and care, and that every child is equal.” That right there? That fierce, unapologetic empathy is the exact antidote to the unhinged cruelty of this administration.

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Among the dozens of other prominent signatories joining Pedro Pascal, Mark Ruffalo, and Ms. Rachel on the open letter and petition are:

• Madonna

• Jane Fonda

• John Legend

• Eva Longoria

• Keke Palmer

• Javier Bardem

• Billy Porter

• America Ferrera

• Elliot Page

• Natasha Lyonne

• Wunmi Mosaku

• Brandi Carlile

• Kesha

• Lena Dunham

• Susan Sarandon

• Brittney Griner

• Gracie Abrams

• Hannah Einbinder

• Maggie Gyllenhaal

• Diego Luna

• Carrie Coon

• Morgan Spector

• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

• Hasan Minhaj

• Katie Couric

• Lance Bass

• Ben Stiller

• Abby Wambach

Nearly 200 more artists, musicians, athletes, physicians, and public figures all echoing the core demand: no child should be locked in an immigration detention center. (The joint letter also states: “Children belong in schools and on playgrounds, not in detention centers.”)

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Voices Using Their Platforms for Empathy and Humanism

This fight has sparked a powerful wave of solidarity from even more influential voices who refuse to stay silent. At the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, stars including Natalie Portman, Edward Norton, Zoey Deutch, and Seth Rogen joined Olivia Wilde by wearing “ICE OUT” pins and speaking out against the administration’s policies, using red carpets and interviews to spotlight the human cost and call for compassion over cruelty.

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Olivia Wilde Wears ‘ICE Out’ Pin at Sundance Film Festival, Receives Standing Ovation for ‘The Invite’ Premiere | 2026 Sundance Film Festival, Edward Norton, Emily Arlook, Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Shauna Robertson,

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley has blasted ICE’s treatment of immigrants as “inhumane” and a “national disgrace,” urging fans to recognize that “humanity is not partisan” and that “cruelty is wrong, period.”

These celebrities and countless others are leveraging their massive reach not just to sign petitions, but to model empathy, amplify the stories of detained families, and remind the world that true humanism demands we protect the most vulnerable. Their platforms turn personal outrage into collective action, proving that solidarity can be a force for real change.

The abusers running this system want us exhausted. They want us to look at the violence in our cities and the detention centers on our borders and feel entirely powerless. They want us to believe the rot is permanent. But it is not. Every single message projected onto a building, every auditor holding the line on the street, and every voice refusing to be quiet is a hammer striking the foundation of their corrupt architecture.

Through our rage, our vigilance, and our relentless love for our neighbors, we are going to tear down these cages and build something humane in their place.

Take Action Now

Sign the Change.org Petition: Close Dilley ICE Detention Center — Protect Children

Do not just sit with the disgust weaponize it. Take a moment right now to add your name to the Change.org petition to Close the Dilley ICE Detention Center.

By signing, you are doing more than just putting a name on a digital page; you are actively reminding this corrupt administration what actual humanity looks like.

You are publicly denouncing a violent, rotting machine that has broken so many bodies and torn apart so many families. We outnumber the abusers. Sign the petition, keep screaming, and let us tear this sickness down to the studs.

Citations & Sources

• Pedro Pascal, Ms. Rachel and Dozens More Demand ‘Inhumane’ Texas ICE Detention Center Closure — The Wrap

• Celebrities sign letter demanding closure of Dilley detention center near San Antonio — San Antonio Current

• Ms. Rachel Says ‘I Am Political’ as She Fights to Close ICE Facility in Texas — Variety

• South Texas immigration detention center to reopen — The Texas Tribune > Includes an aerial view of the Dilley facility.

• Family at Dilley ICE center details moldy food, medical neglect — The Texas Tribune > Includes children’s drawings from inside Dilley.