YouTube star and children’s educator Ms. Rachel continues her mission of outreach to immigrant families who are separated by detention
On Tuesday (June 9), the internet personality, real name Rachel Accurso, shared an Instagram recap of her time at Delaney Hall Immigration Detention Center in Newark, New Jersey. At the institution, she met and sang along with children whose parents were inside the building.
“I can’t say enough about how this cruelty is harming and traumatizing precious children who should get to just be kids,” Ms. Rachel captioned a post. “I know if you came and played cars and drew with chalk with them and laughed and sang and saw their tears you wouldn’t want what is happening to happen.”
In one photo that showed Ms. Rachel hugging a little girl, the YouTuber wrote that the children were “so kind” but “traumatized” because they “miss their parents so much.” “After meeting them, I up until 2am worried about them,” she wrote. “I know if you met them and their families you would feel the same way.”
Another reel showed Ms. Rachel and the families singing an anti-ICE protest song that was written by children detained at Dilley Detention Facility along with the Peace Poets. As The Hill reports, family visitation at Delaney Hall resumed in May, although issues involving unsanitary conditions, poor treatment and food quality have been raised. Protests have repeatedly occurred at the building for over a year.
Ms. Rachel has gone nationwide with her fight for immigrant rights, and in March, the YouTuber spoke with NBC News about her efforts to close Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. The interview came after Ms. Rachel shared a reel of her speaking with a detained 9-year-old, Deiver Henao Jimenez.
“It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail,” Ms. Rachel told the outlet. “It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life.”
