Kal Penn Raises 640K for Refugees in Honor of Troll Who Said He Didn’t Belong Here

“I set up a donor page and turned it into something with love,” Penn tells TheWrap

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Actor Kal Penn may have just come up with the most awesome way to clap back at his Twitter haters.

The actor created a fund-raising page for Syrian refugees on Friday after a Twitter user trolled him on the social network, saying that Penn didn’t belong in the United States.

“I set up a donor page and turned it into something with love,” Penn told TheWrap. “I was sitting on my couch and watched all these small donations come in —  $5, $10, some anonymously — some in the name of Steve Bannon and Ivanka Trump.”

The page has already raised more than $642,000 (and counting), meeting its initial goal of $2,500 in just minutes.

It started after Penn got a call from a friend whose father, an Iraqi refugee who had worked with the U.S. military, was not allowed to board his flight.

“I tweeted it out,” Penn said.

A racist dig from a hater who told the “Harold & Kumar” actor he didn’t belong in the United States, got him thinking.

“Why not turn this into something good?” Penn said. “The idea that someone doesn’t belong — according to who? Who are you, the immigration police?”

Penn wrote a cheeky response: “To the dude who said I don’t belong in America, I started a fundraising page for Syrian Refugees in your name.”

He says the money will go to the International Rescue Committee, which according to its website provides “lifesaving support to refugees now stranded by President Trump’s unprecedented ban.”

“It was incredibly inspiring,” Penn said. “It’s such a testament to the fact that we’re not as the president makes us seem.”

The “Designated Survivor” star’s fundraising effort come as Donald Trump signed an executive order banning people from Muslim countries from entering the U.S. The order sparked demonstrations at airports around the country on Saturday.

The 39-year-old actor, who served on Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, is one of a long list of Hollywood players who have come out against Trump’s Muslim ban.

As TheWrap previously reported, the Motion Picture Academy on Saturday issued a statement calling Trump’s action “extremely troubling” and noted that “Asghar Farhadi, the director of the Oscar-winning film from Iran ‘A Separation,’ along with the cast and crew of this year’s Oscar-nominated film ‘The Salesman,’ could be barred from entering the country because of their religion or country of origin.”

Penn was born in Montclair, New Jersey, to Gujarati immigrant parents and is a U.S. citizen.

“We need to stand up to this person,” Penn said referring to the president. “Its totally un-American. “We’re so much better than this.”

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