Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu blasted critics of illegal immigration and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a fundraising gala in Los Angeles on Saturday night, insisting that illegal aliens should be called “undocumented dreamers.”
While the Birdman director did not refer to Trump by name during his speech, he decried the “constant and relentless xenophobic comments” against Mexican immigrants and blasted “people proposing we build walls, instead of bridges.”
“These sentiments have been widely spread by the media without shame, embraced and cheered by leaders and communities around the US,” Iñárritu said. “The foundation of all this is so outrageous that it can easily be minimized as an SNL sketch, a mere entertainment, a joke.”
Iñárritu was one of the guests of honor at the fifth annual LACMA Art + Film Gala, a glitzy fundraiser held to benefit the museum. Celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, and Jared Leto mixed it up industry executives like Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Paramount’s Brad Grey, and many others, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
He continued:
But the words that have been expressed are not a joke. Words have real power; and similar words in the past have both created and triggered enormous suffering for millions of humans beings, especially throughout the last century.
If we continue to allow these words to water seeds of hate, and spread inferior thoughts and unwholesome emotions around the world to every human being, not only will millions of Mexicans and Latin American immigrants be in danger, but immigrants around the world now suffering, will share the same dangerous fate.
In his remarks, Iñárritu added that “there is no human being who… should be named or declared illegal.”
“I would rather propose to call these people Undocumented Dreamers, as were most of the people who founded this country,” the director said. “By naming them that, we can start a real and human conversation for a solution, with the most precious, forgotten, and distinguished emotion a human being can have: compassion.”
Iñárritu’s comments came a few days after he signed a letter along with dozens of other Hispanic cultural leaders openly accusing Donald Trump of propagating “hate speech” that causes “physical aggressions against Hispanics.”
The full text of Iñárritu’s speech at the LACMA Art + Film Gala can be found here.
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