Hollywood Heavyweights Join Calls to Shut Down Dilley Immigration Detention Center

A growing chorus of Hollywood stars and activists is calling for the shutdown of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, a facility used to detain immigrant children and families following ICE raids. The petition, first announced last month and now boasting more than 215,000 signatures, includes prominent names like Jodie Foster, Spike Lee, Ben Stiller, Janelle Monáe, and Ava DuVernay.

The petition condemns Dilley for its documented abuses: denial of clean water, contaminated food, inadequate medical care, family separations, and retaliation against detainees protesting their conditions. “Children belong in schools and on playgrounds, not in detention centers,” the letter states bluntly.

Dilley has long been a lightning rod for criticism. Reports of measles outbreaks, unsafe food and water, and severe mistreatment have repeatedly surfaced. The facility drew national attention when images of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, detained with his father and carrying a Spider-Man backpack, went viral—putting a human face on the crisis.

Legislators like Representatives Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar have joined the chorus demanding Dilley’s closure and the reunification of detained children with their families. Castro highlighted the worsening medical conditions inside the center, which the Department of Homeland Security continues to deny. “There are people there with grave medical conditions that are worsening because of lack of medical treatment,” Castro said.

More than 6,000 children remain detained nationwide, fueling calls for legislation to ban family detention centers like Dilley permanently.

Carly Pérez Fernández of the Detention Watch Network emphasized the urgency of ending family detention. “Childhood is a fleeting period of time that has a tremendous impact on setting the foundation for a person’s lifelong well-being—it must be protected,” she told the Hollywood Reporter.

The petition’s second wave of signatories includes musicians, activists, and cultural figures such as Megan Rapinoe, Jesse Williams, Tig Notaro, and Tarana Burke, underscoring broad public outrage.

This groundswell of opposition shines a spotlight on the brutal reality of immigration detention under the current administration and demands accountability for the ongoing abuse of vulnerable children and families. The pressure is mounting: it is time to shut down Dilley for good.

For the full list of signatories, click here.