America Ferrera pays visit to migrant children
America Ferrera weighs in on the humanitarian crisis occurring with hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors fleeing to the U.S. from Latin America. The Latina actress…
FILE-America Ferrera visits migrant children in Texas and voices: “We can’t look at children who are fleeing violence and call them criminals.” (Photo: Shutterstock)
America Ferrera weighs in on the humanitarian crisis occurring with hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors fleeing to the U.S. from Latin America. The Latina actress and social activist joined the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) this week and paid a special visit to migrant children being held in Texas camps.
SEE ALSO: 12-year-old tells Congress: Please help protect children like me
In her visit, she interacted with a group of children staying at the Sacred Heart Church shelter in McAllen by reading to them and playing with them.
“We can’t look at children who are fleeing violence and call them criminals,” Ferrera said to the McAllen Monitor of the children whom are also escaping their countries due to poverty, gangs and drug trafficking.
The 30-year-old expressed: “The United States has been founded on moral leadership, and we can’t turn our backs on a moral crisis.”
She shared a photo of her visit on social media with the caption: Spent yesterday at a Brownsville,TX shelter that’s providing humanitarian relief on the border. Met this 21-year-old mother who fled Guatemala.
She was also spotted having a conversation with HHF’s CEO Jose Antonio Tijerino. “Read Antonio Tijerino, President of @HHFoundation’s article on the humanitarian crisis confronting our border,” she encouragingly stated.
More than 52,000 children primarily from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been caught crossing the United States border alone since October of 2013. The crisis hits close to home to the “Ugly Betty” star. Her parents, who are from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, immigrated to the U.S. during the 70s.
“Every generation has to stand up and fight for the world they want to live in,” she stated.
The HHF, with the help of the READ (Refugee Enrichment And Development) Project, is focused on providing aid to these undocumented children with hope and relief through reading, playing and praying with them.
SEE ALSO: Honduran special forces are struggling to keep children from fleeing to the US
Ferrera is not the only public figure concerned with the surge of young immigrants from Central America. Miami rapper Pitbull, television actress Eva Longoria and news anchor Jorge Ramos have all voiced their thoughts on the truly heart-wrenching situation.
