Rapper Nicki Minaj shares her personal story as a 5-year-old 'illegal immigrant'
"I can’t imagine the horror of ... having my parents stripped away," she wrote.
Rapper Nicki Minaj sounded off Wednesday against the current immigration situation in this country, sharing her own personal story of coming to the U.S. at the age of 5.
"I came to this country as an illegal immigrant," she wrote on Instagram, next to a picture of what looks to be a detention center of some kind for children. The rapper was speaking out against the current policy of separating children from their families at the border and detaining them indefinitely.
"I can’t imagine the horror of being in a strange place & having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5," she continued. "This is so scary to me. Please stop this. Can you try to imagine the terror & panic these kids feel right now? Not knowing if their parents are dead or alive, if they’ll ever see them again."
The 35-year-old rapper originally hails from Trinidad and Tobago, and moved to Queens, New York when she was 5 in the late 1980's. Eventually, the artist attended LaGuardia High School in Manhattan years later.
But Minaj isn't the only celebrity to voice his or her concern online about the current immigration policy. Last week, Chrissy Teigen made a $72,000 donation to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Trump's 72nd birthday.
"John and I are outraged to see and hear the horror stories of immigrant families seeking asylum and refuge in America being ripped apart due to inhumane policies of the Trump administration," she wrote in an Instagram post. Teigen, who welcomed her second child last month, added that the stories she's heard "go against everything we believe this country should represent."
"The ACLU is committed to defending the rights and humanity of these vulnerable families. In addition to fighting for immigrants' rights, criminal justice reform, LGBT rights, 1st amendment rights and holding the Trump administration accountable whenever possible," she continued.
Furthermore, the likes of George and Amal Clooney donated $100,000 to help immigrant children, as well.
The donation was made to The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights. The organization declares on its website that its mission is to "promote the best interests of unaccompanied immigrant children with due regard to the child’s expressed wishes, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and state and federal law," according to its website.
“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?’" George and Amal Clooney said in a statement posted to their website. "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.”
On the administration side, President Donald Trump Wednesday signed an executive order that he said would keep immigrant families at the border together. Up until that point, the Trump administration consistently said they had no choice but to separate families because of the law.
"I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated," Trump said yesterday.
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