Three dozen celebrities have teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union for an Instagram video demanding the reunification of thousands of children with their parents amid the current immigration policy scandal. In the video, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ryan Reynolds, Chadwick Boseman, Thandie Newton and more take turns reading the story of Mirian, one mother forcibly separated from her young son.
“The U.S. immigration officers told me that they were taking my son from me,” starts Mirian’s story. “They said that he would be going to one place, and I would be going to another. The immigration officers made me walk out with my son to a government vehicle and place my son in a car seat in the vehicle. I asked why the officers were separating my son from me. They did not provide any reason.”
The account continues: “My son was crying as I put him in the seat. I did not have a chance to try and comfort my son because the officer slammed the door shut as soon as he was in his seat. I was crying, too. I cry even now when I think about that moment — when the border officers took my son away.”
Other stars who took part in the emotional project include Oscar Isaac, Jeff Bridges, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kumail Nanjiani, Emma Thompson, Amy Schumer, Riz Ahmed, Ilana Glazer, Tim Robbins, Mira Sorvino, Lena Waithe and Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
The Instagram video directs viewers to visit the ACLU webpage for Trump’s Family Separation Crisis and to raise awareness of the situation with the hashtag #MyNameIsMirian.
“For months, the administration has been systematically separating asylum-seekers from their children as they arrived at the southern border. More than 2,300 children have been forcibly taken from their parents,” the ACLU writes on that webpage. “We are in the courts, streets, and in Congress to hold the Trump administration accountable for the irreparable damage it has done to these young lives. We need you in this fight.”
