Hollywood stars rally against Trump's immigrant policy
Los Angeles, June 20 : Hollywood celebrities like Natalie Portman, Mindy Kaling and John Legend have spoken out against the controversial illegal immigration policy by US President Donald Trump's administration.
Trump and his administration have come under heavy criticism of late for adopting a zero-tolerance approach to people illegally crossing over the American border from Mexico, with officials currently separating parents from their children as they are taken into custody.
Portman is spearheading a new campaign calling on US lawmakers to stop tearing families apart as authorities crack down on illegal immigration, reports aceshowbiz.com.
She has now joined forces with activists at the National Domestic Workers Alliance to slam the "brutal new policy" via a MoveOn.org petition, which will be delivered to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, and members of the US Congress.
"This shockingly cruel, traumatic, and inhumane practice has no place in our country. It must be stopped immediately, and without holding these children hostage to pass other anti-immigrant policies We must speak loudly enough, and in large enough numbers, that the media stays focused on this story," Portman said in a statement.
The actress said she has "joined the National Domestic Workers Alliance to launch this petition. Please sign it and stay tuned for more ways to help these families".
Over 250,000 people had added their names to the campaign as WENN went to press.
Mindy, who has Indian roots, tweeted: "As a mother and a daughter of immigrants, I am heartbroken about children being separated from their families at America's borders."
Celebrities like Bette Midler, singer John Legend and his model wife Chrissy Teigen, filmmaker Ron Howard, actresses Evan Rachel Wood and Alyssa Milano, and country legend Willie Nelson are among the other celebrities to blast the Trump administration in recent days.
Hollywood veteran Kevin Costner expressed his disgust during an appearance on talk show "The View" on June 19.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
