‘Westworld’ Star Evan Rachel Wood Goes On Hunger Strike Over Border Crisis

Actress Evan Rachel Wood announced on Sunday that she’d be participating in a hunger strike over the crisis at the Souther border, where some children are being separated from their families after crossing the border illegally.

The “Westworld” star will not be on said hunger strike until there is action from Congress, though; this was apparently a “24-hour” strike to “raise awareness.” According to People magazine, the fast is part of the #BreakBreadNotFamilies movement, which was launched by the La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.

The 30-year-old told People that she considers her 24-hour food fast a “privilege and not a sacrifice.”

“It’s a small price to pay considering what families are going through,” she said.

Since at least 2014, under the Obama Administration, illegal immigrant children have been detained at the border, reportedly under “deplorable conditions.” Currently, the vast majority of such children being sent to the border illegally — about 10,000, according to DHS — are coming alone, already separated from their families. For the 2,000-plus children who have been detained apart from their families, Republicans in Congress offered a legislative solution, but were shot down by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Wood spent time in Texas over the weekend, where she delivered supplies to illegal immigrant families leaving a detention center in McAllen. “I was buying things that I’ve bought for my own son,” she said. “I broke down when I picked up a pair of shoes that I’ve bought for him because it made it so personal.”

“[I wanted] to put faces with the stories [and] to actually be there and hug the children and play with them, see how sweet and loving they are but to see how tired and in pain they are — and see the fear in their parents’ eyes,” Wood told People of her visit to the border.