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John Legend calls out Paul Ryan for Father's Day tweet

Posted at 10:07 AM, Jun 18, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-18 11:07:14-04

Singer John Legend has slammed House Speaker Paul Ryan with an F-bomb on Twitter over a Trump administration immigration policy that has separated at least 2,000 children from their parents.

"Seriously, f--- you," Legend wrote, retweeting Ryan's post Saturday in which he wished "all the dads out there" a happy Father's Day. "Reunite the families at the border and we can talk about father's day."

The tweet came a day after the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that at least 2,000 children had been separated from parents at the border as part of a new zero-tolerance policy on illegal border crossings. The Trump administration recently decided that every adult caught crossing the border illegally will be charged with federal crimes instead of referring those with children to immigration courts.

The harsher punishments for immigrant parents mean their children are separated from them and there's no clear procedure for reunification aside from hotlines the parents can call to try to track down their children.

Ryan, the top Republican in the House, said last week that he believes Congress should resolve the issue as part of immigration legislation.

"We don't want kids to be separated from their parents," he said.

Ryan's press secretary, AshLee Strong, declined to comment to CNN Sunday on Legend's tweet.

The separations of immigrant families have touched a nerve with Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen. The activist celebrity couple, who have two young children, slammed the new immigration policy Thursday and said they were each donating $72,000 to the ACLU as a way to "celebrate" President Trump's 72nd birthday.

"John and I are outraged to see and hear the horror stories of immigrant families seeking asylum and refuge in America being ripped apart due to the inhumane policies of the Trump administration," they wrote. "These actions are cruel, anti-family and go against everything we believe this country should represent."

In the letter, Teigen and Legend encouraged others to donate as well. In the next two days more than 20,000 people donated more than $1 million to the ACLU, Teigen tweeted on Saturday.

In addition to his tweet at Ryan, Legend also retweeted a post from writer Saladin Ahmed: "if you think stealing someone's baby is a reasonable response to them crossing an imaginary line on the ground you are either brainwashed or a horrible person."