Uzo Aduba told us exactly where to look to find American values about immigration

Let’s be honest, when Donald Trump signed the immigration order banning refugees, the world pretty much exploded. People, rightly so, took to the streets in protest. Celebrities who had a larger microphone spoke out to anyone who would listen. And Orange is the New Black star Uzo Aduba was one of those stars. At a Variety brunch on Saturday, Uzo Aduba spoke out against the ban on refugees.

In an interview with ELLE.com, Uzo Aduba had this to say about the immigration order:

"We went so far as to erect a woman standing in the harbor of New York. To have on her plaque words like, 'Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.' That's a sonnet, 'The New Colossus.' And we took those words and those ideals very seriously, to serve as the bedrock for who we are a nation, who we are as a country — and I think right now we are being asked to examine that and whether we're prepared to fight for those ideals."

She also mentioned the Constitution:

"They didn't start it with 'us' or 'these few'—it was 'we the people,' meaning all of us."

Besides being a cast member of one of the most diverse shows on television, Uzo Aduba is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. In a 2014 essay for the Daily Beast, she wrote:

"I am the daughter of Nigerian immigrants. My mother is a survivor of both polio and of the Igbo genocide during her country’s civil war in the late 1960s. Each Igbo name has a story behind it, so upon my birth, my mother carefully chose my name to be Uzoamaka, which means 'the road is good.'"

We’re glad that she is speaking out!