In an emotional essay for TIME, music superstar Shakira criticized America for its lack of compassion towards the immigrant children who were separated from their parents after being detained at the southern United States border.
Earlier in October, multiple outlets reported that the government was having trouble locating the parents of 545 children, and that many may have been deported under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance policy.”
Shakira grew up in Colombia, a country she said was “rife with inequality and a lack of social mobility.” By contrast, she called America “a place that was always held up as a paragon of equal opportunity and limitless aspirations, where anyone could succeed.” Now, however, Shakira believes the country is going against its core values.
The Grammy winner wrote, “What rationale could justify separating children from their families, with no intention of ever reuniting them, when the U.S. has prided itself on being a beacon of hope for those who come from places where not even basic needs or safety are a guarantee?”
