Following recent disturbing reports about the treatment of migrants, especially children, at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities in Texas, Selena Gomez spoke out on Instagram on Saturday (June 29), calling their living conditions "absolutely inhumane" and urging followers to also speak out against the children's treatment.
According to a report by the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit media organization based in the state, children have no soap, toothpaste, or diapers and are being forced to sleep on the floor in overcrowded detention centers.
"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! Don’t stay silent on this human rights issue," Gomez wrote, adding the hashtags #CloseTheCamps and #FamilesBelongTogether.
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This isn't the first time Gomez has voiced her concern for the families and children who are being separated at the border because of President Donald Trump's immigration policies.
"It's extremely disheartening," Gomez told the Hollywood Reporter during the Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation premiere last year. "There's a lot of confusion and anger. It's definitely been affecting so many people who are close to me."
She also tweeted in support of the Keep Families Together marches that took place on June 30, 2018.
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Earlier this month, reports MSN, the government argued in an appeals court that because the 1997 Flores agreement, which stipulates that migrant children must be housed in "safe and sanitary" conditions, doesn't specifically mention items like toothbrushes and soap, it's not directly required to provide those items.
“It’s within everyone’s common understanding, that if you don’t have a toothbrush, if you don’t have soap, if you don’t have a blanket, it’s not safe and sanitary,” U.S. Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima responded during the appeals hearing, as the three appellate judges reportedly expressed shock at the argument. “Wouldn’t everybody agree with that? Do you agree with that?”
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Meanwhile, Elora Mukherjee, the director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, visited border detention facilities herself and noted a heartbreaking detail regarding the children's behavior.
“The children are locked in their cells and cages nearly all day long,” she told the New York Times in an article published June 21. “A few of the kids said they had some opportunities to go outside and play, but they said they can’t bring themselves to play because they are trying to stay alive in there.”
The story caught Gomez's attention; she joins a long list of other celebrities who have spoken up over the mistreatment of immigrants at the border. Most recently Rihanna spoke to The Root in a video posted last week about standing up for what's right.
"You have to raise as much awareness and not just that, but just as a whole, as a nation, put all your heads and all your voices together and be as loud as possible," she said. "That’s the only way that politicians and the government actually listen when they feel like their country is as concerned as the matter is concerning."
