Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara are opening up about their baby son for the first time in a new essay.
The longtime couple wrote an op-ed for People magazine, focusing on the migrant children whose parents are unable to be located.
“Like many, we were pained to realize that despite falling out of the headlines, the policy of family separation continues to damage children and parents across the world, more than two years after it was ruled illegal by a federal judge,” they wrote.
“As new parents, it’s unbearable to imagine what it would feel like to have our child taken away from us for a day, let alone years. But that’s the very situation those 545 children and their parents have been living through,” Rooney and Joaquin continued. “As Americans, it’s our responsibility to continue paying attention to the plight of these families and get answers for why they still have not been located.”
They continued, “We have to ask ourselves: Is this the country that we want? Are these our values? How will it feel to explain to our son, when he asks us about this time and how we treated scared, defenseless children, some of whom may never see their parents again?”
“For the sake of our nation’s character, I hope we will be able to tell him that America unequivocally rejected this cruelty and demanded that our representatives did everything in their power to find those missing parents.”
It was revealed that Rooney and Joaquin had welcomed their son, named River, in September.
Find out the inspiration about behind the newborn’s name here…
