Nicki Minaj Came To America As An Illegal Immigrant

Many celebrities have been speaking out against the Trump administration ripping families apart at the U.S.-Mexico border. Some have responded by donating money (and lots of it!) to organizations like the ACLU, and some, like Nicki Minaj, have decided to share stories of their own journey to America.

"I came to this country as an illegal immigrant @ 5 years old," she wrote on Instagram. "I can't imagine the horror of being in a strange place & having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5.” The rapper was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, and raised in Queens, New York. Minaj continued, urging her more than 80 million followers to empathize: “This is so scary to me. Please stop this. Can you try to imagine the terror & panic these kids feel right now? Not knowing if their parents are dead or alive, if they’ll ever see them again…”

Minaj wrote her post before Trump reversed the family-separation policy, but the fight isn’t over. As Vox points out, the executive order merely orders the Department of Homeland Security to detain families together rather than separate them. On top of that, the government doesn’t have a plan in place to reunite the thousands who have already been separated. Find out how you can help, here.