As the United States witnessed widespread protests against President Donald Trump's immigration policy, actor Diane Guerrero recalled being separated from her parents over 15 years ago.
The 'Orange Is The New Black' star while addressing a gathering at one of the protests, said she was "lucky" to be accepted by her community.
"I would have had a much different story to tell if I had been imprisoned after being separated from my family, without a warm bed and only the cold faces of ICE agents and the crinkly feeling of a Mylar blanket. I was lucky enough to be with my parents until I was 14. Having my parents tell me that I could do anything That I was special. And that I matter. That gave me the confidence to last me a lifetime. I don't know why I was lucky enough to have people in my community take me in, to be able to continue school or why I was lucky enough to find work or to go to college.
"I do know that kind of luck is one in a million. I also know I wouldn't have been so lucky if I had been among today's generation of children who will be irreversibly damaged by our government's actions," The Hollywood Reporter quoted her, as saying.
A teary-eyed Diane continued, "It is a denial of children's humanity to say that because they were born in a difficult or a dangerous place at the wrong time that they don't deserve a second chance. That they shouldn't ask for refuge. How many more children are we willing to subject to a lifetime of pain? Once my family was taken. I became fully aware that my community matters less to some people, that we are treated differently because of the color of our skin or where our parents were born."
"We are now in a moment where we can no longer be blind to the blatant disregard of human life. This time the stakes are too visible, too well-documented to be ignored. It has reached you! It has reached all of us and forced us to ask ourselves, 'What kind of country do we want to be?' One that violates the rights of children, including the fundamental right to seek asylum? Or do we want to be an America that values children and families and the freedom to be who we are?" she further stated.
Diane also appealed to the audience to remember the zero tolerance policy while voting in the midterm elections in November this year.
People from all walks of life across the US took to the streets in large numbers to protest against Trump's immigration policies and family separations on Saturday.
The epicentre of the demonstration was Lafayette Square, near the White House in Washington D.C., where scores of citizens demanded immediate reunification of migrant families and the end of family separations and detentions.
The demonstrators wore white clothes as a sign of 'unity' and chanted anti-Trump slogans, such as "Shame" and carried banners which read - "Deport Trump, Reunite Families" and "asylum seekers are not criminals," CNN reported.
The protesters urged the administration to withdraw the zero tolerance policy and end separation and detention of migrant families.
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