Actress Evan Rachel Wood, famous for her role in HBO’s Westworld, became part of the hunger strike organized by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization which protests President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The strike began on Saturday in McAllen, Texas, and lasted 24 hours in honor of the roughly 2,400 children that were separated from their parents because of Trump’s immigration policy.
Wood, during her tour across Texas over the weekend, also visited a shelter in McAllen on Sunday. In an interview with People Magazine, she said that it was a “privilege and not a sacrifice” to take part in the protest.
“It’s a small price to pay considering what families are going through,” she said.
Wood also delivered supplies and met some of the immigrant families who have been released from detainment during her visit.
“[I wanted] to put faces with the stories,” she says, “[and] to actually be there and hug the children and play with them, see how sweet and loving they are but to see how tired and in pain they are — and see the fear in their parents’ eyes.”
Actors Levar Burton, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen also participated in the hunger strike.
The protests started several days after Trump signed an executive order to end his administration’s policy of separating families who entered the country illegally.
Trump’s decision came after a wave of criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers pressured the White House to end the policy.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that it knows the locations of every child separated from their parent at the border, but it hasn’t said how or when it intends to reunite those families.
Trump on Sunday called on Twitter for deportation without due process for all immigrants. “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.”
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