When Diane Guerrero, star of Orange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, was 14, she returned home to find her house vacant. Her parents and brother, she soon learned, had been deported to Colombia. Now the Colombian actress advocates fiercely for an end to undocumented immigrant deportation.

“Whatever our personal reasons—whether we were born here or our parents came here for a shot at the American dream,” Guerrero says in a video from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, “We need to stand up to reactionary policies aimed at targeting and criminalizing the immigrant community.”

Recently there has been a rash of deportation raids, the Washington Post reports, “launched by the administration, mostly against women and children from Central America.” Guerrero’s video thus accompanies the loud protests of immigration reform advocates in response to these intensified deportation efforts.

Addressing viewers, Guerrero emphasizes the necessity of putting pressure on legislators in order to combat the criminalization of immigrants. “Please join me by telling our members of Congress and our local and state leaders to stand with us by condemning policies that separate families and destroy communities,” she asks.

Contact the author at rachel.vorona.cote@jezebel.com.

Video via YouTube.