George & Amal Clooney Donate $100,000 To Help Migrant Children
Migrant children being separated from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border are upsetting people around the country and around the world — and George and Amal Clooney want to do something about it, reports PEOPLE. Whether it’s because they became parents last year to twins Ella and Alexander or simply because they’re human beings who realize how traumatizing this must be on the children, the couple has decided to do something to help.
“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,” the Clooney’s said in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE. “We can’t change this administration’s policy but we can help defend the victims of it.” They added, “Today, the Clooney Foundation for Justice will donate $100,000 to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.”
Their foundation has also sponsored the resettlement of Syrian and Yazidi refugees in the U.S. Executive Director, Maria Woltjen of The Young Center, thanked the couple for their support.
“This Administration’s policy disregards international law and basic principles of human decency. To treat children in such a cruel manner not only violates their legal rights but also their basic needs,” she said in a statement. “We are doing everything we can to advocate on behalf of the thousands of children who are separated and alone, and we are grateful for the generous support of George and Amal Clooney and the Clooney Foundation for Justice — it could not be more vital at this time.”
The Clooneys aren’t the only Hollywood couple who has been upset by this crisis. Others have become involved, including John Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen, as noted by PEOPLE, who gave a $288,000 donation to the ACLU on President Trump’s birthday. The famous couple wanted to draw attention to the “immigrant families seeking asylum and refuge in America being ripped apart due to the inhumane policies of the Trump administration.”
All of this comes as news hits that President Donald Trump has announced his intention to address his controversial zero-tolerance immigration policy by signing an executive order to end it, reports NPR. A brief announcement was made at the White House in which Trump did not provide further details on how families would be kept together nor how detentions would be handled going forward. Also, the president has yet to sign the order but stated that he would before leaving on a trip to Minnesota Wednesday afternoon.
