Move over, subtweeting. Celebrities — Amy Schumer, Chelsea Handler and Cara Develigne among them — are directly dragging the subject of their ire through a social media campaign. And who are they calling out? None other than first daughter Ivanka Trump.
Formed by a group of influencers that Trump follows on Instagram, the "Dear Ivanka" campaign sent a coordinated call to the senior White House adviser Thursday to end the "racist, inhumane and unconscionable abuses" of migrant children torn apart from their families, which is said to have occurred on the watch of her father, President Donald Trump, and Kristjen Nielsen, the secretary of Homeland Security.
The open letter, distributed across as a meme across multiple Instagram accounts, directly responds to the controversial claim made by Ivanka Trump at an Axios event last week that the former practice of separating migrant kids from their parents was “a low point” for the Trump administration and for her personally, too. "You said family separation was a 'low point' for you. The low point is for the separated families," the message reads. "You spoke in past tense. The crisis is ongoing."
“I am the daughter of an immigrant,” Ivanka Trump also said during last Thursday's event at the Newseum in Washington, according to CNN. “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. These are not easy issues. These are incredibly difficult issues, and like the rest of the country, I experienced them actually in a very emotional way." At least 2,700 children were torn apart from their families between Oct. 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018, according to Vox. The number of detained children skyrocketed after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in May that the Department of Justice had instituted a zero-tolerance policy at the U.S. border. Despite being a self-proclaimed advocate for women and children, the first daughter remained publicly mum amid the uproar. Her silence lead prominent figures on daytime television to ask, "Where is Ivanka?" "Because, she’s all for women and mothers, and she has a White House role and a job," a visibly frustrated Meghan McCain said Ton ABC's "The View." "I’m sort of interested that her whole platform has been women and mothers, and she doesn’t seem to have anything to say about this?" On MSNBC, Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of "Morning Joe," declared that Ivanka Trump had once again missed the mark "every step of the way."
"This is a story about women and their vital role as mothers, and when you have babies being taken away from their mothers, you have to ask why the counselor to the president — who was brought in to help the president perhaps create good policies surrounding women, parental leave, domestic policies that are important to women in this country — you have to ask why Ivanka Trump is so tone deaf to post a picture about her special day yesterday with her daughter?" Brzezinski asked.
In June, after mounting pressure from activists, the media and politicians, President Trump signed an executive order to bar the practice of separating families at the U.S. border while simultaneously insisting that he would remain firm on his administration's "zero tolerance" policy on unauthorized immigration.
In announcing the reversal, the president suggested that his wife, first lady Melania Trump, and daughter, were key influences. “Ivanka feels very strongly about it, my wife feels very strongly about it," the president said. "I feel very strongly about it. I think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it."
Following her father's move, the first daughter tweeted her thanks to him "for taking critical action ending family separation at our border."
https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1009518490401812481 However, following two deadlines for the reunification of children with their families, 572 kids have not been reunited as of Aug. 1. Moreover, 400 parents were sent back to their native countries before the deadline, making reunification an uphill climb for many. After highlighting these statistics, the "Dear Ivanka" letter went beyond the numbers. "There have been multiple claims of sexual and physical abuse in detention," it reads. "There have been psychotropic drugs administered to children in detention without parental consent."
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