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Conservative critics came after Selena Gomez after she posted an emotional video about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that occurred over the weekend.
956 people were arrested across major cities in the U.S. over just three days as a result of President Donald Trump’s new immigration policy.
“I just want to say that I’m so sorry. All my people are getting attacked,” the 32-year-old Mexican American singer cried in a now-deleted post on Instagram on Monday (January 27). “The children. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry I wish I could do something but I can’t.
“I don’t know what to do. I’ll try everything, I promise,” she concluded, captioning her video, “I’m sorry” with a Mexican flag emoji.
Gomez’s video was met with immediate backlash from Trump’s supporters, who accused her of performative online.
Right-wing political host Tomi Lahren called the actor a “certified moron” in a video shared on X. “This is why we don’t take our political advice from Disney child stars,” she wrote.
Sam Parker, a Republican candidate who sought election to the U.S. Senate in 2018, wrote simply: “Deport Selena Gomez.”
Conservative commentator Benny Johnson wrote of Gomez: “She’s a billionaire because of America. Yet she does not consider us ‘her people.’ We are over ungrateful woke victim brain rot.”
The Only Murders in the Building star subsequently deleted the video from her Instagram Story. She then went back online to hit back at the haters, writing: “Apparently it’s not OK to show empathy for people.”
Gomez has since taken down her follow-up message, too.
The actress’ tearful video comes after Trump signed a deluge of executive orders related to immigration due to an “unconscionable risk” to public safety and national security, a White House official said last Monday.
Some of Trump’s orders were signed with the aim of expanding ICE’s ability to arrest and detain unlawful migrants in the U.S., including one that rescinded restrictions surrounding immigration raids in areas deemed “sensitive” — including schools.
Back in 2019, Gomez produced an entire documentary entitled Living Undocumented and wrote an essay for Time detailing her family’s history of illegally crossing the border from Mexico into the United States.
Both her Aunt and her paternal grandparents were undocumented for some time. However, according to Gomez’s essay, her family has since “worked hard to gain United States citizenship.”
“Undocumented immigration is an issue I think about every day, and I never forget how blessed I am to have been born in this country thanks to my family and the grace of circumstance,” she wrote. “But when I read the news headlines or see debates about immigration rage on social media, I feel afraid for those in similar situations. I feel afraid for my country.
“I don’t claim to be an expert. I’m not a politician, I’m not a doctor, and I don’t work in the system at all,” she continued. “ I understand it’s flawed and that we need rules and regulations, but we also have to remember that our country was formed by people who came here from other countries.”
