What to Know
I don’t have a preschooler living in my house anymore, so I was unfamiliar with Ms. Rachel for a long time. And once I did learn about her, it was more because of her advocacy work than it was for being the biggest thing in toddler and preschool entertainment since Blippi. In the last few years, the popular children’s entertainer, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, has used her increasingly large platform to advocate for children suffering across the world, which has gotten her a lot of backlash. Now, she’s focusing that attention on the Dilley Detention Center.
She recently had the privilege of talking to kids who are in detention.
Accurso shared a clip of her conversation with nine-year-old Deiver Henao from New Mexico while he was being held in detention on her Instagram.
“I can’t express how it felt to talk to a 9 year old who is in an immigration detention center,” she wrote, adding that Deiver was hoping to be released in time to participate in the spelling bee. “Let his family back into their community. This is cruelty. His family was detained at their check in – in US 2 years seeking asylum,” she explained.
One user commented “That’s a baby in a prison. How do we explain that?”
Another added “Every child on earth deserves love and care, a warm cozy bed, full bellies, sleep, education… He is being deprived of so much.”
What’s happening is absolutely heartbreaking, and she knows it.
“We’re trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee,” she said in an exclusive interview with NBC News. “I just never thought those words would go together.”
“It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail,” she said. “It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life.”
Deiver isn’t the only child Accurso spoke to who is being held at Dilley Detention Center. She also spoke with Gael, a five-year-old non-verbal boy with severe developmental delays. Gael was in the process of being assessed for autism when his family was taken during a routine immigration check-in.
When Accurso spoke with the boy’s parents, his mother revealed that he hadn’t pooped in nine days. Doctors at the facility had given him an enema and laxatives, but it wasn’t working. During their conversation, the boy’s stomach was visibly distended.
“Imagine if your child hadn’t pooped in nine days,” Accurso said. “This is not normal. This is an important medical situation.”
She has a new mission to end their suffering.
“Treating a child this way is a crime,” she told NBC News. “It’s neglect and child abuse.”
Accurso first became aware of the detention center in Dilley after news broke of Liam Conejo Ramos when he and his father were taken there from Minneapolis in January. The more she read, the more horrified she became.
After talking with the two boys, she has one goal: “to close Dilley and make sure that kids and their parents are back in their communities where they belong.”
There are still about 50 kids being held at Dilley Detention Center, down from about 500 in January, The New York Times reported on March 20 based on a review of government figures and advocacy group estimates. While some of them have been allowed to return home, others have been deported.
It’s unclear what led to the sharp decline.
For the two boys, things are looking up thanks to Ms. Rachel.
According to NBC News, Deiver Henao and his family have been released from detention. The family, who are from Colombia and seeking asylum, were released on humanitarian parole on March 25, 2026. Their release came days after the Ms. Rachel story ran. It’s been nearly a week since their lawyer, Corey Sullivan Martin filed a request for their release.
Deiver’s elementary school principal wrote a letter supporting the family’s release in mid-March which was given to immigration officials. In the letter, the boy was described as “a dedicated student with excellent attendance and high marks.”
On March 24, 2026, Gael and his family were also released, NBC News reported. The family, also asylum seekers from Colombia, will likely return to their home in El Paso, Texas, their lawyer Elora Mukherjee told the outlet. The terms of their release is unclear, but they will likely have regular ICE check-ins.
