Over 20 celebrities – including Madonna, Pedro Pascal and Jane Fonda – are calling for the release of children from the ICE deportation detention center in Dilley, Texas.
Madonna, Gracie Abrams, Muna, Kesha, John Legend and many more stars have signed a petition calling for the immediate closure of the ICE Detention Center in Dilley, Texas.
The Detention Center is a detention center operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigrants without a valid residence permit and asylum seekers are taken into custody there while proceedings are ongoing. Only people who have violated immigration laws or are considered a security risk should be held there. There is very little transparency about what is happening in these centers.
Children and families in detention
The prison in Texas is a center that houses many families and children. In recent months, nearly 600 migrant children have been held at the Dilley facility “without adequate food, medical care or psychological support,” according to the Associated Press. In 2025, 2,300 children were taken into custody.
The protest letter is directed against this. The signatories call for the closure of the facility, the release of children and families, and generally “transparency, accountability, and systemic reforms to prevent such abuses from occurring anywhere in the United States.”
The prison in Dilley is by no means the only one. In Texas alone there are others such as the El Paso Service Processing Center and the Eden Detention Center, as well as many more.
Stars call for Dilley Prison to be closed
Many well-known musicians and actors are now calling for the facility in Dilley to be closed. It reads: “We, the undersigned, call for the immediate closure of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) family detention facility in Texas, and an end to the detention of children and families. Children held in immigration detention suffer trauma, neglect, and conditions that violate basic standards of health, safety, dignity, and human rights.”
Signatories include Madonna, Gracie Abrams, Muna, Kesha, John Legend, King Princess, Brandi Carlile, the Indigo Girls, Lance Bass and Sara Bareilles, as well as Ayo Edebiri, Keke Palmer, Lena Dunham, Elliot Page, Pedro Pascal, Jane Fonda, Javier Bardem, Michelle Williams and Rebecca Hall.
Prominent criticism of ICE
Many artists have used their platform in recent months to speak out against the immigration authorities ICE. Criticism of the authority was loud in acceptance speeches at numerous award shows. At the Grammys, for example. Bad Bunny, among others, spoke out against it there: “Before I thank God, I first say: ‘ICE out!’”. Billie Eilish has also taken a stand against ICE several times – in her acceptance speech she made it clear: “Nobody is illegal on stolen land… Screw ICE.”
It remains to be seen whether the petition will have any effect. However, thanks to the participation of many well-known personalities, the protest brings the issue into the public eye. This draws attention to the abuses in deportation prisons.
