Ms. Rachel Takes on ICE: Children's Entertainer and Activist Speaks Out Against Texas Facility Detaining Kids

Rachel Accurso, the children's educator and YouTube star known to millions of parents as Ms. Rachel, is working with lawyers and immigration activists to shut down the Dilley Immigration Processing Centre in South Texas after video-calling two detained children and calling their treatment 'neglect and child abuse.'

A Five-Year-Old's Health Deteriorates Behind Bars

The most disturbing account involves Gael, a five-year-old nonverbal boy who was being assessed for autism when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained him and his parents at a routine check-in in El Paso.

Gael's family fled Colombia, has pending asylum claims, and has no criminal history in the US, according to their lawyer, Elora Mukherjee, a professor at Columbia Law School and director of its Immigrants' Rights Clinic.

Mukherjee said Gael's severe constipation had been managed at home through a careful diet. Since arriving at Dilley, his condition has worsened sharply. He reportedly hasn't had a bowel movement in nine days and has begun hitting himself, a behaviour his parents say they had never seen before.

'Imagine if your child hadn't pooped in nine days,' Accurso told NBC News. 'This is not normal. Treating a child this way is a crime. It's neglect and child abuse.'

A Nine-Year-Old's Plea to Leave

Accurso also spoke with nine-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez, held at Dilley with his parents since early March. During the video call, the boy said the food made his stomach hurt and asked to leave so he could attend his school's spelling bee.

'We're trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee,' Accurso said. 'I just never thought those words would go together.'

Children at the facility have reported constant lighting, limited access to education, and mouldy food. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has rejected those claims, saying families receive appropriate care at a facility built for their needs.

Thousands of Children Held at a Single Facility

The Trump administration has placed more than 2,300 children into detention with their parents since expanding its immigration crackdown, with the majority held at Dilley, according to figures from court-appointed monitors. Many have been detained for weeks or months.

The population has dropped sharply. Roughly 50 children remained this week, down from about 500 in January, following pressure from human rights groups, Democratic lawmakers, and immigration lawyers.

Deiver's family, like Gael's, fled Colombia with pending asylum claims and had been living and working in the US for years before their arrests, according to their lawyers.

Why a Children's Entertainer Won't Stay Quiet

Accurso's YouTube channel has more than 19 million subscribers, and her Netflix series was the platform's most-watched children's show in the first half of 2025. Her audience is overwhelmingly parents of young children.

She has previously drawn both praise and backlash for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for children affected by conflict in Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Taking on ICE detention, she said, felt unavoidable despite threats against her family.

'I am political,' Accurso told NBC News. '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.'

She said she won't stop until detained children and their parents are back in their communities and the Dilley facility is closed for good.