Eva Longoria to focus charity work on victims of 'family separation' policies

Eva Longoria is planning to focus her philanthropic efforts on reuniting children separated from their parents by U.S. President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies.

The Desperate Housewives actress was born to Mexican-American parents in Texas and has given extensively to charity and political causes.

Now, she is moving her charity campaigning work to the U.S.-Mexico border, and in particular, helping children kept away from their parents by government policies that detain parents in jail before deportation while kids have been kept in cages under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"It's a scary time for Latinos in the United States because we're being villainised," she told British newspaper The Guardian. "A lot of my philanthropic efforts are at the border, trying to make sure families are not separated, babies are reunited with their mothers and children aren't put in cages. The family separation policies are horrendous, so that's where I want to put more focus."

Although the policy officially came to an end in June last year, reports of family separation have continued, and government officials has admitted the policy affected many more kids than originally thought.

Eva shared that as a Latina American, she fell into "depression" when Trump was first elected in 2016 due to his incendiary rhetoric towards Mexicans and Mexican-Americans but is now channelling her rage into political action.

"I did put my head in the sand," she explained. "I took a break for about two years. But you can't give up. So when the mid-terms came along, I participated in helping people get elected to change the way our government looks. It should reflect reality, which is people of colour and women. Making sure it reflects society is going to be my lifelong struggle."