The popular children’s entertainer Rachel Griffin Accurso – better known as Ms. Rachel – has officially declared that she is “political.” The YouTube star who targets babies and toddlers with her “learning” videos has a new mission: closing a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) illegal immigrant detention center in Texas.
Amiss Rachel
Accurso recently shared on social media a video call she held with Deiver Henao Jimenez, a 9-year-old who is being held with his parents at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. The child was understandably upset and told Ms. Rachel that he wanted to leave. “It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who’s in jail,” Accurso later told NBC News. “It broke me, and it was something I never thought I’d encounter in life.”
Accurso is now working with activists and attorneys “to close Dilley and make sure that kids and their parents are back in their communities where they belong.” But if Jimenez’s parents are illegal immigrants, then the child’s detention is a consequence of their decision to unlawfully enter the United States, and “where they belong” is the country they left before violating US immigration laws.
This is the tragedy of being a child with parents who break the law. In most areas of the justice system, incarceration leads to separation, with parents serving sentences while their children live with relatives or in foster care. When it comes to immigration enforcement, temporarily locking up children with their parents is far from ideal, but it avoids the more controversial alternative of family separation.
Entertainment and Politics
Accurso previously claimed to be apolitical, but her activism appears to be ramping up. Earlier this year, the children’s entertainer collaborated with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist. The pair sang to children at a school in Lower Manhattan.
Ms. Rachel’s shift comes as many in the entertainment industry are pulling back from politics after years of backlash. In November, Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence acknowledged that “celebrities do not make a difference whatsoever on who people vote for … So then what am I doing? I’m just sharing my opinion on something that’s going to add fuel to a fire that’s ripping the country apart,” Lawrence continued, adding, “We are so divided.”
Actor Kevin James recently struck a similar tone, arguing that there are “experts who know much more” about politics than he does. “I’m just focusing on what I can do, delivering a fun, heartfelt break from the craziness of the world,” James said. The beloved comedian then offered some wisdom that Ms. Rachel should probably consider:
“Everybody carries themselves around all day long with a lot of stress. It’s necessary in some ways, but you also need a break. You’ve got to look around and find the good in things. Otherwise, you’re just not going to function. I want to make people have fun, have hope and get a nice escape in their day.”
It’s a sentiment many parents likely share, especially when it comes to content targeting children. Disney learned this lesson the hard way. The entertainment giant has faced widespread criticism in recent years, particularly after a company executive spoke about a “not at all secret gay agenda” in a leaked video. In 2024, CEO Bob Iger implied the company was changing course, saying Disney’s job “is not to advance any kind of agenda.”
Accurso’s reach isn’t quite on the level of Disney, but it’s still massive. The Ms. Rachel YouTube channel, which Accurso started in 2019, has 19.3 million subscribers and over 15 billion views across 121 videos. Her target audience: babies and toddlers. Accurso claims to offer children “high quality screen time,” but for parents concerned about politics seeping into children’s programming, it might be time to look for a new kids’ entertainer.
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