Nicki Minaj Speaks Out on Being a Young Undocumented Immigrant

On her Instagram, the 35-year-old rapper shared an emotional message about coming to the U.S. at the age of five from Saint James, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, where she was born.

Celebrities from Chrissy Teigen to Cardi B have been weighing in on the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy toward immigrants coming to the U.S.-Mexico border. Millions of dollars have been raised to support families that have been separated and the children that were taken to the equivalent of concentration camps. Now rapper Nicki Minaj is giving her two cents on the issue.

On her Instagram Wednesday, the 35-year-old shared an emotional message about coming to the U.S. at the age of five from Saint James, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, where she was born. “I came to this country as an illegal immigrant at 5 years old,” Minaj wrote. “I can’t imagine the horror of being in a strange place and having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5. This is so scary to me. Please stop this. Can you try to imagine the terror & panic these kids feel right now?”

Trump did “stop” this. On Wednesday, he signed an executive order that put a halt to the separation of families, a problem his own attorney general Jeff Sessions created, but at the expense of indefinite detention of families crossing the border. The solution is nearly as inhumane as the previous method of dehumanizing immigrants seeking refuge, and those kids already separated from their parents will not be reunited with them any time soon.

“We are keeping families together,” Trump said while signing the document. “This will solve that problem. At the same time, we are keeping a very powerful border and it continues to be a zero tolerance. We have zero tolerance for people who enter our country illegally.”

Hopefully, artists with platforms like Nicki, John Legend, Chance the Rapper, and more will not stop speaking out against these heinous human rights violations, even as separating family is taken off the table.

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