Ms. Rachel Pivots Advocacy to U.S. Child Immigration Detention

Popular children's entertainer Rachel Accurso, known to millions as Ms. Rachel, is directing her widespread platform towards advocating for the release of children from immigration detention centers in the United States, following a series of deeply affecting video calls with detained youth.

A Desperate Plea from Detention

In an emotionally charged video call, nine-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez voiced his distress from the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. "I don’t want to be here anymore," he reportedly told his caller. "Nothing is good here." Since early March, Deiver and his parents had been held at the facility, where children have described limited educational opportunities, constant artificial lighting, and concerns about food quality, including mold.

His virtual conversation partner was Ms. Rachel, the beloved children's entertainer, identifiable by her signature pink headband. Leaning towards the screen, she offered comfort. "Oh, I’m so sorry," she said in the warm, high-pitched voice familiar to millions of young viewers and their parents. "A lot of people want to try to help." Deiver shared that he missed his friends and that the food at Dilley upset his stomach. More poignantly, he expressed concern about his upcoming New Mexico state spelling competition in May, a spot he earned after winning his school's spelling bee and placing third at regionals. "I want to leave and go to the spelling bee," he pleaded. Ms. Rachel reassured him, "You have a real gift for spelling. You’re so smart." Her smile, however, soon faltered.

"It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail," Accurso, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, later told NBC News in an exclusive interview. "It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life."

A Growing Voice for Vulnerable Children

Like many Americans, Accurso first became aware of the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, in January. This awareness stemmed from a widely circulated photograph of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a blue bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack, after federal immigration agents detained his father in Minneapolis and sent them both to the remote facility. The image drew national attention to the center and the conditions faced by families held there. While Liam's family was eventually released, their asylum claim was subsequently denied.

Under the Trump administration's expanded immigration crackdown, over 2,300 children were placed in detention with their parents during the first year of the initiative, with the overwhelming majority held at Dilley, according to figures provided by court-appointed monitors. Many families remained detained for several weeks or months.

Accurso, whose educational videos for babies and toddlers have established her as one of the nation’s most recognizable children’s entertainers, has increasingly used her platform to advocate for vulnerable children. Her previous advocacy efforts have highlighted the plight of children in conflict zones like Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and drawing both support and criticism. She consistently defends her advocacy with a clear mantra: "I see all children as precious and equal."

New Mission: Closing Dilley

Following her recent video calls with Deiver and another boy detained at Dilley, Accurso now embarks on a new mission focused closer to home. She announced her commitment to collaborate with lawyers and immigration rights activists "to close Dilley and make sure that kids and their parents are back in their communities where they belong."

Parents and immigration lawyers have provided further accounts of the challenging conditions within the facility. They describe children losing weight, reportedly after finding worms in their food, experiencing increased anxiety due to constant guard patrols, and enduring hours-long waits for single doses of medicine. Some children have also suffered medical emergencies while in detention.

Government figures and advocacy group estimates, reviewed by The New York Times, indicate that approximately 50 children remained at Dilley this week, a significant decrease from about 500 in January. While the exact reasons for this sharp decline remain unclear, it follows months of sustained pressure from human rights advocates, Democratic members of Congress, and immigration lawyers. Some families have been released within the U.S., while others faced deportation.

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