Advocacy group We Stand United released a video Friday afternoon featuring actor Mark Ruffalo and rapper Common speaking about President Donald Trump’s administration’s failure to reunify families separated at the southern border despite a court order deadline issued on July 10.
“We are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis here on U.S. soil,” Ruffalo says to the camera in the video.
The three-and-a-half-minute video also acts as a short documentary, following a mother who is separated from her young son at the Texas border, chronicling the days of anxiety and pain the ordeal causes her through short clips. At the end of the video, she is reunited with her son.
“This family is one of the lucky ones, but many more are not being reunited,” Common says. “And now parents are being forced to pay to get their kids back.”
The video also features various activists, some protesting the administration’s practice of keeping children in detention centers while others are preparing backpacks for mothers and children leaving detention centers.
“We’re packing backpacks with love so that they know that there are people here who care for them, because they have not had much kindness shown to them,” one woman says.
Andra Day’s Grammy-nominated song “Rise Up,” which she offered in support of the video, is also featured as the backing song throughout. Common has previously collaborated with Day on Oscar-nominated single “Stand Up for Something,” which received an Oscar nomination in 2017.
Since Trump’s inauguration, Ruffalo has been active in protesting the administration’s actions. Earlier this spring, Ruffalo announced he would be taking an extended break from social media on Twitter, choosing to focus on things “I want to put more of my attention on.”
Hey everyone, I will be cutting back on my social media time to focus on a few things I want to put more of my attention on. With much gratitude and love until we meet again.
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) March 1, 2018
Watch the video below.
