The following media release from the National Domestic Workers Alliance, United We Dream and Make the Road New York was shared on Monday night:
At MTV’s 2018 Video Music Awards (VMAs) tonight, rapper, songwriter and producer Logic joined immigrant parents and children in a performance of his song and powerful new music video to protest the Trump Administration’s cruel and inhumane family separation policy that tore thousands of children from their parents and continues to keep hundreds apart. Immigrant leaders from the National Domestic Workers Alliance, United We Dream and Make the Road New York and their children participated in the on-stage performance.
Logic released the “One Day” music video on Friday ahead of the awards ceremony. The video follows the story of a young immigrant teenager forcibly separated at the border from his parents and baby sibling. The performance at the Video Music Awards showed hundreds of families separated on stage by a human-made wall. When the wall fell, children rushed to rejoin their parents.
Three weeks after a federal court-ordered deadline to reunify families, the Department of Justice revealed last week that the Trump Administration is still holding 565 of the children they forcibly separated from their parents in federal detention, including 24 children under 5 years old who were supposed to be reunited more than a month ago. Despite claiming an end to its family separation policy, the Administration has deported hundreds of these children’s parents without them, often tricking desperate parents into signing up for deportation with a false promise that they would get their children back. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s assault on immigrant families nationwide continues, with recent data showing that arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record have more than tripled.
Logic is part of the cadre of leading artists lending their voices in protest at this critical moment, following Lin-Manuel Miranda, John Legend, America Ferrera and others during the historic Families Belong Together national day of action in June.
“We are still in a moment of crisis. Hundreds of children have been taken away from their parents by the Trump administration and locked up in detention away from their families,” said Jess Morales Rocketto, a leader of the Families Belong Together Coalition and political director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “We’re calling for accountability. Join us in the fight to reunite every family that’s been torn apart by this administration.”
“It is inspiring and powerful to see Logic share the stage with immigrants like me to show the real-life struggles we face,” said Lizbeth Huitzil, DACA recipient and member of Make the Road NY. “Our brothers and sisters are being detained, put in cages, and separated from their families. With tonight’s performance, we are sending a strong message: families belong together and not in cages.”
“I’m so excited to have performed with Logic tonight. It meant a lot to me to be able to represent my family because my dad, Manuel Arpi, is in a detention camp,” said Jefferson Arpi, a 15 year-old youth leader with United We Dream whose father has been detained for 9 months. “Logic’s music video showed that even though our families face a lot of pain, we are strong, we are fighters, and we are human.”
“My message is clear. It doesn’t matter where you come from or how you got here. We are all mothers,” said Edith Calderon, immigrant leader with the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “I came here 25 years ago when my first daughter was only two months old so that she could have a better future. When I see families being separated, I think of my daughters and granddaughters. This is the story of millions of mothers. And all of us belong with our children.”
Thousands have taken to the streets in historic protests across every state in the nation to demand an end to this Administration’s practice that torments and traumatizes immigrant families. There has been an outpouring of compassion from everyday people, sacrificing their vacations, opening up their own wallets, and donating millions of airline miles to bring families back together and make them feel welcome.
