John Legend's Comments About Sarah Sanders Are A Reminder Of What's Really At Stake

John Legend and Chrissy Teigen haven't been shy about voicing their issues with the Trump administration, and this week has been no exception. When TMZ asked the "All Of Me" singer about press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, he used the opportunity to speak about a different issue. Legend's statement about Sanders is a reminder that there are far more pressing issues in the United States right now, including the debate over the country's immigration laws.

Instead of talking about Sanders, Legend said to the TMZ reporter, "Ask me, Should we be reuniting 2,000 kids with their families? Ask me that." TMZ asked Legend his question, to which he responded:

"Yes, we should. I don't care about f*cking Sarah Sanders. Reunite the f*cking kids with their families, and then we'll talk about Sarah Sanders and her f*cking dinners."

Within the past week, there's been fairly extensive media coverage of the fact that Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant called the Red Hen. People have argued both sides of the issue, with some defending the restaurant owners' right to deny service. Even President Trump weighed in, tweeting about the Red Hen's appearance.

Whatever your opinion about the Red Hen debacle is, though, it's received more media attention than it should have. Children have been separated from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border, and many of the families haven't been reunited, as Legend pointed out. That should be a bigger news story than the Red Hen situation.

This isn't the first time Legend and Teigen have spoken out about politics recently. Ahead of Father's Day weekend, Legend criticized House Speaker Paul Ryan's Father's Day post about his children. "Seriously, f*ck you. Reunite the families at the border and we can talk about father's day," Legend tweeted.

His tweet has a similar tone to what he told TMZ about the border separations. Seemingly harmless and trivial things can feel insignificant in the current political climate. Some studies showed that many Americans felt anxiety after Trump was elected president. And with things like the border separation policy going on, that anxiety might not have gone away. Sanders should be able to eat a meal, as any other person should, and it's not a crime for Paul Ryan to celebrate Father's Day. But Legend's point seems to be that Americans need to recognize what's going on in the world and to fight for those who are being affected by injustice.

Teigen and Legend also used President Trump's recent birthday as an opportunity to donate to the ACLU. Since Trump was turning 72, the couple released a statement announcing that each member of their family — so the two of them, plus Luna and Miles — would be donating $72,000 to the ACLU. In the statement about the donation, the couple cited the immigrant families affected by what they referred to as "the inhumane policies of the Trump administration."

After the backlash against his administration's border separation policy, President Trump issued an executive order about the practice. But as Bustle previously reported, some experts believe the executive order's language is vaguely worded, and that the separations might still be able to continue.

And even if the order is a step in the right direction, it's not a one-step fix for the United States' immigration problem. There are still plenty of immigration issues happening in the U.S. right now, and Legend is using his star power to make sure more people know what's going on. In the grand scheme of things, children being taken away from their parents seems like a way bigger issue than what happened at the Red Hen.