‘Her fans taught her that the majority of the country stands behind these policies’
Selena Gomez posted — and quickly deleted — a tearful video of herself crying over deportations of undocumented immigrants by America’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following President Donald Trump’s first days in office.
“I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry,” a crying Gomez said in a video shared with her more than 420 million followers on Instagram. “All my people are getting attacked, 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.”
The Only Murders in the Building star was forced to delete her viral video after she was targeting by fans of Trump’s policy. Gomez later posted a now-deleted response to critics in which she said, “Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people.”
During a segment of The Megyn Kelly Show, the conservative commentator lashed out at Gomez calling her an “unwell person.”
“Who is she weeping for? The rapists and murderers who are being deported because that is all they have come for so far,” Ungar-Sargon explained. “Why are ‘her people’ not the victims of the murderers and the rapists – be they migrant victims of murderers and rapists or American victims of murderers and rapists? What is wrong with this person that she can look at the scum of the earth that Donald Trump is getting out of this country and repatriating where they came from and say, ‘Everything is going poorly for my people’?”
“Obviously, this is an unwell person,” Kelly replied. “Anybody who takes their phone (and films themselves like that) is a sick person. Tears happen… but I don’t understand the person who works it and tries to squeeze out more tears to make themselves look extra sad.”
Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren called Gomez a “certified moron” for her video.
Since Trump’s inauguration last week, Tom Homan, the former acting ICE director who the president has designated his “border czar,” has said immigrants with criminal records are the administration’s priority.
According to the Associated Press, the White House and Department of Homeland Security said more than 7,300 deportees have been returned or removed since Trump took office nationwide, “including hundreds of convicted criminals.”
On Tuesday teams of ICE officers – along with newly detailed FBI agents, Drug Enforcement Administration officers and U.S. Marshals – began knocking on doors and making arrests in New York City,
Newly minted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem documented some of the arrests on social media.
When asked about Gomez’s viral video on Monday night, Homan promised “sex trafficking of women and children is going to drop.”
Although Gomez was born and raised in Texas, she expressed her sympathy for illegal immigrants in an October 2019 essay in Time Magazine in which she revealed her aunt entered the U.S. hidden in the back of a truck as she crossed over from Mexico in the 1970s.
“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,” Gomez wrote in Time. “In the 1970s, my aunt crossed the border from Mexico to the United States hidden in the back of a truck. My grandparents followed, and my father was born in Texas soon after. In 1992, I was born a U.S. citizen thanks to their bravery and sacrifice. Over the past four decades, members of my family have worked hard to gain United States citizenship … 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.”