Everyone is doing their best to deal with the dystopian horrors in our daily news cycle, but for Evan Rachel Wood doing nothing about what she has been seeing just wasn’t an option. So she took a trip down to the border between Texas and Mexico.
Wood, best known for her role in HBO’s Westworld, traveled to Texas this weekend to see what action could be taken on the ground in response to the Trump administration’s policy of forcibly separating immigrant children from their parents. She encouraged followers to track her time in Texas using the hashtag #EvanInTX.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
“Ever since I heard about everything happening in our country and the separation policy, I’ve been wondering what I can do,” Wood said in an Instagram video. “So I’ve flown to Texas and am going to be on the front lines for the next few days to find out what I can do to help — what we can do to help.”
Wood posted another video shortly after, where she said she learned that advocacy organizations are in need of supplies for the immigrant men, women, and children detained at the border, especially since these organizations are not being allowed to gather and drop off donations themselves. Wood posted a series of images with some of the things she’s picked up, including clothes, shoes, toothbrushes, shampoo, body soap, and diapers.
Some other celebrities who headed to the border include Lena Dunham, who marched in Tornillo, TX, where the government has propped up military-grade “tent cities” to hold the surplus of detained children. She marched early Sunday morning with the non-profit Voto Latino, an advocacy group that aims to get Latinos civically engaged, and was joined by actor Joshua Jackson and Jenni Konner, the showrunner for Girls.
This is the latest high-profile visit to the small border town. Hundreds of people showed up to protest on Father’s Day, led by Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, and over a dozen mayors from major cities across the country visited last week and condemned the Trump administration's actions.
President Donald Trump has since signed an executive order so kids and families would no longer be forcibly separated. According to federal officials, about 500 of the over 2,300 separated kids have been reunited. The Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services announced a plan yesterday to reunite most of the children already taken from their parents and held in facilities and shelters across the country — although it’s unclear how long the process will take or how effective it will be.
From protests to fundraisers, people are mobilizing in an attempt to do something about this. And, sure, we don’t all have the resources to fly down to the border ourselves. But whether or not you’re a celebrity, there is one thing you can do (and you can work to help others who are disenfranchised or disadvantaged, as well): register to vote. After all, midterm elections are coming up this fall.