06/13/2026
This week, Ms. Rachel went to Washington!
The beloved children's educator arrived at the Capitol in her signature pink, wheeling a suitcase packed with 535 packets of letters and drawings from children held in ICE custody at the nation's largest concentration camp for children in Dilley, Texas -- one packet for every member of Congress. "I cry a lot," a 7-year-old boy wrote in one of them. "I want to get out of here."
Ms. Rachel spent two days going office to office -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- urging lawmakers to end family detention and reunite children separated from their parents. She told them about the kids she's come to know over months of video calls with detained families: Deiver, the 9-year-old who just wanted to compete in his state spelling bee; Amalia, the 18-month-old who suffered a near-fatal health crisis in custody; and Guri, a 12-year-old detained with his family since February who has suffered from blood in his stool for months without ever being referred to a specialist.
"This is not a partisan issue," Ms. Rachel maintains. "We will all look back on this time and remember if we stood with children being abused in detention centers."
As she was leaving the Senate office buildings on Tuesday evening, the news broke that the House had just passed, in a virtually party-line 214-212 vote, a $70 billion package to fund Trump's mass detention and deportation campaign through the end of his term -- including $38 billion for ICE alone. The money will fuel a vast expansion of the detention system, which has already swelled to a record 70,000 people and is on track to exceed 100,000 beds -- some of them in facilities designated to hold families and children like the ones whose letters she carried.
That evening, Ms. Rachel sat quietly on the Capitol steps, taking in the weight of the vote -- and then recorded a message for the children whose words she carried: "I have your words right here. I'm always going to stand with you."
She has heard the criticism that a children's entertainer should stay out of politics, and her answer has always been simple: "I am political. It’s political to believe that children are worthy of love and care, and that every child is equal, and that our care shouldn’t stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border." So the next morning, she came back -- to meet with more lawmakers and make sure every one of the 535 packets was delivered.
"I'll never stop trying, for them," she said. "I can't say, 'I'm just one person, so I'm not going to make a difference.' What if everyone said that?"
---
To stand with Ms. Rachel and the children being imprisoned by the administration, here's how to take action:
--> Call your representatives via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and demand the immediate release of all children from ICE detention and an end to family detention -- if you don't reach a staffer, be sure to leave a message
--> The National Center for Youth Law is fighting the Trump administration in court over conditions at Dilley. To support their critical work, visit https://youthlaw.org/
--> To support the National Immigrant Justice Center, which advocates for detained immigrants and conducts oversight of ICE facilities, visit https://immigrantjustice.org/
---
Ms. Rachel has drawn a direct line to her hero Mister Rogers, who faced the same accusations of being "political in his day -- a history explored in "Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers," available at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9780664260477 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4c3LDG5 (Amazon)
For a powerful novel-in-verse that tells the story of child immigrant detention through the eyes of a 9-year-old girl imprisoned in a U.S. detention camp, we recommend "Land of the Cranes" ages 9 and up at https://bookshop.org/a/8011/9781338343861 (Bookshop) and https://amzn.to/4lImdkB (Amazon)
For children's books that encourage empathy and understanding of Mighty Girl immigrants of the past and present, visit our blog post, "A New Land, A New Life: 25 Mighty Girl Books About the Immigrant Experience" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12855
For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
For books for tweens and teens about girls living under real-life authoritarian regimes throughout history that will help them appreciate how precious democracy truly is, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426
To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for A Mighty Girl's free email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter
---
To read The Washington Post's full story on Ms. Rachel's visit to Capitol Hill, visit https://wapo.st/4ecHKP2
To read NPR's reporting on the $70 billion ICE funding package and concerns about the agency's unprecedented expansion, visit https://www.npr.org/2026/06/09/nx-s1-5851664/house-reconciliation-vote-immigration-enforcement-ice-border-patrol
