DILLEY, TEXAS — Children's entertainer Rachel Accurso connected by video call with detained children at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in March 2026 and announced she is working with lawyers and immigration rights activists to close the facility. Accurso said she is working to return families to their communities.

"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 said. "All these kids need to be home. I see all children as precious and equal."

Since early March 2026, 9-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez had been held with his parents at the South Texas facility. Before his detention, Deiver won his school spelling bee and placed third at the regional competition, earning a spot at New Mexico's state competition in May 2026. "I don't want to be here anymore," Deiver said. "Nothing is good here." During the video call, Accurso told him, "You have a real gift for spelling. You're so smart."

In January 2026, federal immigration agents detained the father of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in Minneapolis and sent them both to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center. About 50 children remained at the facility in March 2026, down from about 500 in January 2026, according to government figures and advocacy group estimates.

Children at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center have complained of limited education, lights that never turn off and moldy food. In the first year of its expanded immigration crackdown, the Trump administration placed more than 2,300 children in detention with their parents, with the majority held at the Dilley facility, according to court-appointed monitors.

Gael is a 5-year-old nonverbal boy with developmental delays who was being assessed for autism when he and his parents were detained in El Paso at a routine immigration check-in. At the Dilley facility, Gael had not pooped in nine days and was gagging when he tried to eat, his mother said. The facility treated Gael with laxatives and later an enema, his mother said. Gael's stomach was visibly distended and he has shown distress in detention, at times hitting himself, behavior his parents said they had not previously seen.

The Department of Homeland Security said families at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center are provided comprehensive care in a facility purpose-built for their needs.