More than 200,000 people have signed a petition calling for the immediate closure of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a family detention facility in Texas run by private prison company CoreCivic. The petition, hosted on change.org, has attracted support from numerous celebrities including Pedro Pascal, Natasha Lyonne, Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, and Bruce Springsteen.
The petition states: 'No child should be locked in an immigration detention center. Children held in immigration detention endure trauma, neglect and conditions that violate basic standards of health, safety, dignity and human rights.' It details allegations of abuse, including refusal to provide clean water, rotten food contaminated with worms, medical neglect, and sleep deprivation.
Among the signatories are Oscar winner Jodie Foster, directors Ava DuVernay and Spike Lee, actors Ben Stiller and Mark Ruffalo, musicians Madonna and Janelle Monáe, and children's entertainer Ms. Rachel. In a statement, Ms. Rachel said: 'Every child, everywhere, deserves to feel safe, to be cared for, and to be treated with dignity. We can all agree that no child should be locked in an immigration detention center.'
The facility gained notoriety after five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was detained there in January. The boy, wearing a blue hat and Spider-Man backpack, was used as bait by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to capture his father, Adrian Conejo Arias. Both were released on February 1 and are fighting deportation to Ecuador.
Human rights advocates report that the number of families held at Dilley has fallen in recent weeks, but protests continue over conditions. The petition is addressed to Donald Trump, ICE Director Todd Lyons, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and CoreCivic.
