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Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara have long been politically active in the United States
Photo: VALERIE MACON / AFP
The US actor couple Joaquin Phoenix, 46, and Rooney Mara, 35, have sharply criticized the treatment of migrant children who were separated from their families at the US border in 2018 and are still separated from them.
"As new parents, it is unbearable to imagine what it would feel like to have our child taken away from us for a day, let alone years," the couple wrote in a column published by "People" the day before the presidential election .
Phoenix and Mara recently had their first son together.
In spring 2018, US authorities separated several thousand children of illegally immigrated people from Latin America from their families on the border with Mexico.
The practice caused international outrage and was later banned by a court.
Phoenix and Mara warned that hundreds of affected migrant families are still not united.
The American news channel NBC reported in October that the parents of 545 children had not yet been found.
According to lawyers, two thirds of these parents were deported.
The Colombian singer Shakira was also outraged about this in an article in the US magazine "Time".
For the children who remain separated from their parents, the damage will last a lifetime, write Phoenix and Mara in their column.
"We have to ask ourselves: is this the country we want?"
They both hoped to tell their son "that America had unequivocally opposed this cruelty and demanded that their MPs do everything in their power to find these missing parents."
Phoenix was nominated three times for an Oscar and three times for the Golden Globe.
In 2006 he won a Golden Globe for his role as Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line".
Mara played in the films "The Social Network", "Verblendung" and "Her", among others.
The couple have long been politically active in the United States.
At the end of September, the birth of her son became known.
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