'Where is Ivanka in all this?' Maria Shriver, Meghan McCain among celebs calling out Trump's trusted adviser for failing to help detained children

Suzy Byrne
·Editor, Yahoo Entertainment
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Update: On Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end the process of separating children from their families. It’s being described as a “dramatic turnaround” for Trump, who made it clear, however, that the order would not end the “zero-tolerance” policy that prosecutes all adults caught crossing the border illegally. According to the Associated Press, Trump was influenced in his decision by first lady Melania Trump, who had been making her opinion known. Plans weren’t revealed as to how quickly the detainees will be reunited with their families.

With more than 2,300 children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and placed in detainment centers — or, as some have called them, “concentration camps” — one voice has been absent in failing to condemn the policy: Ivanka Trump‘s. Donald Trump‘s trusted senior adviser and, of course, daughter — who’s a children’s advocate — has been quiet on the matter, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed.

People are criticizing White House adviser and children’s advocate Ivanka Trump, pictured in March 2018, as kids are taken from their parents and placed in detainment centers. (Photo: Getty Images)
People are criticizing White House adviser and children’s advocate Ivanka Trump, pictured in March 2018, as kids are taken from their parents and placed in detainment centers. (Photo: Getty Images)

Maria Shriver shared a post asking the first daughter, who is reportedly urging her father behind the scenes to end the separations, to “show what it means to be an advisor on women’s issues, a proponent of female empowerment” and it’s gotten some traction.

And in case Ivanka missed that, the journalist, who is of course part of the Kennedy clan and the former first lady of California, followed up on Wednesday with more, telling the accessories designer turned politico to “step up or step down.”

It hasn’t been a lone cry. Celebrities from all walks of life — actresses, comedians, Olympians — have liked or shared Shriver’s posts or have made similar comments themselves. On Tuesday’s The View, Meghan McCain, daughter of Arizona Sen. John McCain, wanted to know: “Where is Ivanka in all this? Because she’s all for women and mothers, and she has a White House role … and I’m sort of interested that her platform has been women and mothers, and she doesn’t seem to have anything to say about this.”

There are other voices as well, including Judd Apatow, who has been leading the charge in slamming Fox News’s border coverage.

And there are others. Many, many others.

A lot of outrage has been focused on Ivanka, who famously said there’s a “special place in hell for people who prey on children.” A meme has been widely circulated over the past few days of Ivanka in the $5,000 metallic Carolina Herrera gown she wore in Jan. 2017 next to some of the children under their metallic blankets in a detainment center.

First lady Melania Trump has been on the receiving end of this too as the country looks for someone — anyone — to influence the president to fix the horrific situation. She too has reportedly been having conversations with POTUS to reunite the families.

As Shriver calls on Ivanka take action, her estranged husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California and an immigrant himself, ripped Donald Trump and his entire administration.

Meanwhile, the donations are pouring in to save the kids. The record-breaking Facebook fundraiser campaign created by Silicon Valley couple Charlotte and Dave Willner on Saturday to benefit RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) has raised an astounding $12 million to help reunite the immigrant families. Following the $288,000 donation to the ACLU by Chrissy Teigen and her family (which raised more than $1 million total), George and Amal Clooney announced on Thursday that they’ll be donating $100,000 to the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights in honor of the important cause.

“At some point in the future our children will ask us: ‘Is it true, did our country really take babies from their parents and put them in detention centers?’” the Clooneys, who are parents to 1-year-old twins Ella and Alexander, said in a statement. “And when we answer yes, they’ll ask us what we did about it. What we said. Where we stood. We can’t change this administration’s policy but we can help defend the victims of it.”

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