Many black celebrities have joined in to create a compelling video which tells the story of a woman, Mirian, who was separated from her infant child while seeking asylum at the U.S-Mexico border. Mirian's story, as explained through some 30 celebrities, imparts the harrowing realities families separated at the border face.
The video, created by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal and shared on the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) YouTube page, features celebrities in various locations reading parts of Mirian's letter in front of a camera. Black stars, including Chadwick Boseman, Lena Waithe, Method Man and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, joined the video to help tell Mirian's story and to bring awareness to the children who have not yet reunited with their families.
The letter shares that Mirian, a citizen of Honduras, left her home with her infant son to seek asylum in the United States.
"We fled Honduras after the military tear-gassed our home, " the letter read in part.
Immigration officers then took Mirian's son away before sending her to a government detention center. In a powerful op-ed published in CNN, Mirian wrote that she reunited with her son after two months and 11 days of being separated.
"I am proof that parents who are legally seeking asylum are being separated from their children for seemingly no reason," she wrote in part.
The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year to end family separations. A federal judge then ordered the reunifications of parents and children separated at the border; children under age 5 were to be reunited by July 10 and all minor children by July 26.
Although reports reveal children have been reunited, the federal government has missed the first deadline to reunite all immigrant children under age 5. Officials have said nearly half of the young migrant children are "ineligible" for reunification due to unspecified safety concerns, PBS reports.
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