Celebrities including Amy Schumer, Sophia Amoruso and Alexa Chung are participating in a social media campaign calling on Ivanka Trump to make a stronger stand in the ongoing migrant children crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The stars, all of whom Trump follows on social media, aimed to catch the first daughter’s attention with identical posts demanding that she call for the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who has been overseeing the separation of immigrant children from their parents.
“Dear Ivanka,” the post begins. “You follow me on social media. You said family separation was a ‘low point’ for you. The low point is for the separated families. You spoke in past tense. This crisis is ongoing. As of now, 57 children have not been reunited. A child has died after separation. Approximately 400 parents have been deported without their children. There have been multiple claims of sexual and physical abuse in detention. There have been psychotropic drugs administered to children in detention without parental consent. These abuses have occurred on your father’s watch and under the leaderships of Secretary Nielsen. End these racist, inhuman and unconscionable abuses now! We demand you call for the resignation of Secretary Nielsen.”
Paola Mendoza, a filmmaker who served as the artistic director for the Women’s March, tells Bustle she organized the Instagram campaign along with fellow Women’s March alums Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein. The women said their goal is to “put pressure on Ivanka to actually do something” about the family reunification crisis.
“Ivanka claims to have been pained by this tragedy. If so, she should call for the resignation of Secretary Nielsen, otherwise her words are as false as her father’s,” Mendoza told Bustle. “The separation of families is a tragedy that Ivanka participated in and we will not stop shining the light of truth on her no matter how much she wants to hide from it.”
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President Donald Trump‘s daughter and senior adviser spoke out against family separations last week, saying the issue “was a low point” — but seemingly still supporting the crux of her father’s unapologetic “solution” to the crisis: “Don’t come to our country illegally.”
“That was a low point for me as well,” she said at an Axios event in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. “I felt very strongly about that and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children so I would agree with that sentiment. Immigration is incredibly complex as a topic. Illegal immigration is incredibly complicated.”
She continued, “I am the daughter of an immigrant, my mother grew up in communist Czech Republic, but we are a country of laws. She came to this country legally and we have to be very careful about incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk of being trafficked, at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone.”
Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. Congress must now act + find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values;the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 20, 2018
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Trump first commented on the issue on Twitter in June, after facing pressure from Maria Shriver and other critics to speak out against her father’s policy. But the first daughter remained silent until after her father had signed an executive order reversing his own policy on family separations — and then applauded him for “taking critical action.”
A post shared by @ amyschumer on Aug 6, 2018 at 8:43pm PDT
A post shared by Sophia Amoruso (@sophiaamoruso) on Aug 6, 2018 at 5:32pm PDT
I interrupt this broadcast to bring you… RG @sophiaamoruso
A post shared by Alexa (@alexachung) on Aug 7, 2018 at 2:57am PDT
A post shared by Audrey Gelman (@audreygelman) on Aug 6, 2018 at 5:35pm PDT
A post shared by Paola Mendoza (@paolamendoza) on Aug 6, 2018 at 3:16pm PDT
A post shared by Sophia Bush (@sophiabush) on Nov 23, 2017 at 2:13pm PST
This isn’t the first time celebrities whom Trump follows on Instagram have targeted her on social media. Last Thanksgiving — in a similar campaign led by Amoruso — Cara Delevigne, Alexa Chung, Sophia Bush, Olivia Wilde and more stars shared “Dear Ivanka” posts urging her to support the passage of the DREAM Act for young immigrants by December.