Selena Gomez slams 'inhumane treatment' of children in border detention camps: 'How is this still happening?'
Selena Gomez posted a moving message on Instagram on Saturday describing the "inhumane treatment" of the immigrant children in the border detention camps.
The 26-year-old singer wrote: "Kids in cages! Sleeping on concrete floors with aluminum blankets! No access to simple dignities! How is this still happening??? It’s absolutely inhumane to treat anyone like this let alone children. I can’t even imagine what they are going through. We need to get this to finally stop!"
Selena’s post got over 5 million likes and a wave of positive comments followed praising the singer for using her platform to draw attention to such issues.
She also urged her followers to contact their local representative to speak against the atrocities committed in these detention centers in the hope that it might change the circumstances these children find themselves in.
This isn't the first time that Selena has expressed her discontentment with the immigration policies.
Last year, when Trump administration started practicing a family separation policy across the US-Mexico border to address illegal immigration, Selena was very vocal about how this policy affected her close ones.
She fired a tweet saying immigrants and refugees needed "protection, understanding and opportunity, not detention".
Families seeking safety in our country need protection, understanding and opportunity, not detention. This is a moral choice, not a political one. #keepfamiliestogether #june30
— Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) June 30, 2018
A court video that recently surfaced online showed a Department of Justice lawyer arguing that toothbrush, soaps and beds are not essential for children detained at the Border Detention Camps.
The judge then tells the lawyer that keeping children in such conditions is against the 1997 consent decree—the Flores Settlement Agreement—which states that detention facilities must be safe and sanitary.
The Washington Post has reported that six children have died since September last year while in the custody of immigration authorities at the Rio Grande Valley Detention Facility.
The inhumane practice of separating children from their parents and placing them in deplorable conditions in the detention centers has led to a nationwide movement called Close the Camps.
Selena also endorsed the movement by using the hashtag #Closethecamps.