Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House senior adviser, made headlines last week after saying in an interview that the separation of migrant children from their families “was a low point.”
The use of past tense caught the attention of some social media users who were quick to point out there are still hundreds of undocumented children separated from their parents. These children remain in government shelters because their parents have criminal records, their cases are under review or their parents are outside the country. More than 450 mothers and fathers have been deported without their children.
At the event on Thursday, she said “immigration is incredibly complex as a topic.” Before President Trump issued an executive order reversing his own policy on family separations, his daughter reportedly asked her father to end the practice.
The outcry over her comments has coalesced in another series of “Dear Ivanka” posts. On Monday, “Girlboss” author Sophia Amoruso, fashion designer Alexa Chung and actor Amy Schumer (all of who Ivanka Trump follows on Instagram) shared the same message on Instagram, calling for the first daughter to take action on behalf of the families still torn apart by her father’s policies and demand the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The image was created by the Girlboss team.
“Dear Ivanka” messages have been appearing since before the Trump administration officially began. In the days after the November 2016 election, the activist-artist team Halt Action Group began an Instagram account called @dear_ivanka that implored the soon-to-be first daughter to act on concerns about gay marriage, immigration and women’s rights. The account last posted in December.
On Thanksgiving Day, Amoruso, Chung and other celebrities including Olivia Wilde and Cara Delevingne posted a similar message asking Ivanka Trump to speak up about threats being made to the Dream Act, which allowed young adults and teens brought to the United States as children to work and lead normal lives without fear of deportation. It remains in limbo.