Nicki Minaj Recalls Being An Illegal Immigrant Amid Family Separations At The Border

Nicki Minaj is expressing her empathy for the migrant children who have been separated from their families since the hip-hop star came into the U.S. as an illegal immigrant.

Minaj, the 35-year-old hip hop mogul, shared her thoughts about the border control crisis that has resulted in countless children being separated from their families and placed in detention centers.

“I came to this country as an illegal immigrant [at] 5 years old. I can’t imagine the horror of being in a strange place [and] having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5,” Minaj wrote on Instagram this week. “This is so scary to me. Please stop this.”

According to CNN, at least 2,300 children have been separated from their families at the Mexican border due to President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration. The policy called for the prosecution of adults who were caught crossing the Mexican border illegally.

When those adults who attempted to cross the border with children were detained, the kids were forced apart and placed in centers around the country. On Wednesday, Trump announced an executive order that would stop the separation of families and detain adults and children together.

However, it is unclear if the thousands of children who have already been separated from their parents will be reunited. Minaj urged her 88 million Instagram followers to empathize with the migrant children who may not know if their parents are dead or alive after being separated.

While Minaj does not often speak about emigrating into the U.S., she has spoken up about her Trinidadian roots. In a 2010 Rolling Stone interview, the rapper spoke about praying that God would make her rich so that she could take care of her mother when she first came to America.

Minaj has been transparent about growing up in a household where she was dealing with her father’s alcoholism and abuse. Born in St. James, Trinidad, Minaj held a press conference for her first big homecoming concert as a high profile celebrity in 2010.

According to Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday, the rapper said that she wanted to use the platform to share the music and culture with the world.

“When I visited in the past, I was not a celebrity so I stayed at my grandmother’s house which was very modest,” she revealed.

Years later, she told her Trinidadian followers that they could achieve their goals too with resources like the internet.