Dozens of Hollywood celebrities demanded the shutdown of a Texas immigration facility for “abuse against children” in a new petition created Sunday.
“No child should be locked in an immigration detention center. We, the undersigned, call for the immediate closure of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) family detention center in Texas and an end to the detention of children and families,” the petition said.
Among the signatures were major actors such as Madonna, Pedro Pascal, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, America Ferrera, Elliot Page, Jane Fonda, Diego Luna, Hannah Einbinder, Wunmi Mosaku, Billy Porter, Keke Palmer, Elizabeth Banks and others.
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The petition asserted that children in the facility “endure trauma, neglect and conditions that violate basic standards of health, safety, dignity and human rights.”
“We urge 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,” the petition read.
“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.”
Several celebrities on the petition, such as Bardem, Ruffalo and Einbinder, have frequently criticized ICE officers, often using major awards shows as their platforms.
As of Tuesday, the petition had over 20,000 signatures.
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, a CoreCivic spokesperson accused the petition of being part of the many “baseless claims and allegations” launched by people who “are either misinformed or intentionally misleading the public.”
“More than just being wrong, these harmful efforts undermine the public service-centric work that our dedicated and professionally trained staff complete every single day to provide a safe and humane environment for those families and children who have been entrusted to our care,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called out the celebrities, adding that the Trump administration and DHS “are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to reunite children with their families.”
“These celebrities remain quiet about the humanitarian crisis that was manufactured by the Biden administration’s open border policies over the last four years and the scores of children exploited, trafficked and missing. Do they plan to mention the psychiatric impact on the tens of thousands of children who were smuggled across the border — many by human and sex traffickers?” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The petition came after YouTube children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, spoke out against the Dilley Immigration Processing Center. Accurso, who also signed the petition, told NBC News she no longer cared if she was labeled “political” for her actions.
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“I am political,” Accurso said. “It’s political to believe that children are worthy of love and care, and that every child is equal, and that our care shouldn’t stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border.”
Celebrities have used increasingly scathing rhetoric against immigration enforcement over the past few months, going so far as to call ICE officers “the worst of the worst of humanity.”
