Almost 2,000 migrant children have been separated from their parents due to Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration policy
Words by Katherine Benson
George and Amal Clooney are the latest celebrities to take action against US President Donald Trump's ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration policy which has led to the separation of migrant children – some as young as 18 months – from their parents. The children are then kept in ‘temporary shelters’, which have been described by reporters as hundreds of children waiting in cages with concrete floors.
According to Amnesty International, these acts deliberately cause such mental suffering that they constitute torture – inflicted not just on adults facing harsh choices, but also children who cannot make choices at all. The Clooney Foundation is the latest to contribute to ending this abuse with a donation of $100,000 to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, a human-rights group that advocates for immigrant children.
George and Amal are the latest following a stream of outrage from celebrities such as Gigi Hadid, Alyssa Milano, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend who have teamed with UNICEF and the ACLU to defend the rights of migrant families.
Alongside the donation, the Clooney’s foundation released a statement explaining their emotional motivations to take action; ‘At some point in the future our children will ask us: "Is it true, did our country really take babies from their parents and put them in detention centers?" And when we answer yes, they’ll ask us what we did about it. What we said. Where we stood, we can’t change this administration’s policy, but we can help defend the victims of it.’
Donald Trump has since bowed to public pressure and signed an executive order promising to 'keep families together' in migrant detentions. However, Trump’s signing of the executive order is not the end of the issue. This legislation could see migrant children detained indefinitely with their parents, and there are concerns about the lack of plans in place to reunite the 2,300 children currently in detention with their parents.
