Selena Gomez was moved to tears over the weekend as the Trump administration fast-tracked policies to deliver on the president’s mass-deportations campaign promise. Her show of emotion did not sit well with many.
The “Only Murders in the Building” and “Emilia Pérez” star, who is of Mexican descent on her father’s side, posted a since-deleted video on Instagram in which she sobbed over the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids carried out over the weekend that targeted criminals who had entered the country illegally.
“I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry. 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,” Gomez, 32, said through tears in the raw video. She added an emoji showing the Mexican flag and wrote “I’m sorry” on the clip.
The actor-singer took down the clip after facing mixed criticism, then took to her Instagram story to say: “Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people.”
The outspoken immigration advocate appeared to be responding to President Trump’s decision last week to remove long-held guidelines that restricted ICE from operating at “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches or hospitals. The decision was a cause for concern among many migrants and advocates who fear that children could be traumatized by seeing their parents arrested in school dropoff lines or avoiding getting needed medical out of fear of arrest, according to the Associated Press.
In 2019, Gomez produced a Netflix docuseries, “Living Undocumented,” about the ongoing immigration crisis in which she shared her family’s experience. She also wrote a stirring op-ed about it for Time in 2019 titled “I’m Afraid for My Country.”
“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 at the time. Gomez said that in the 1970s her aunt crossed the border from Mexico to the U.S. in the back of a truck, then her “grandparents followed,” and her father was born in Texas “soon after.” The actor-singer, whose mother is of Italian descent, said it took 17 years for her paternal grandparents to get citizenship. In the essay, she credited her family’s “bravery and sacrifice” for allowing her to be born a U.S. citizen.
But after posting her video over the weekend, the Rare Beauty co-founder was harangued on social media by many, including Sam Parker — a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for Utah’s U.S. Senate seat in 2018 — who repeatedly called for the “Wolves” singer’s deportation.
“Selena Gomez picked illegals over America b/c she’s the 3rd gen descendant of Mexican illegals who received citizenship in the ’87 Amnesty,” Parker wrote on X. “She has an entitlement attitude toward America, like her illegal g’parents. Maybe Selena should be deported, too?”
Gomez’s fans quickly defended her and attacked Parker, prompting him to write Monday on Instagram that he “didn’t have ‘wage war against a bunch of … Selena Gomez fans’ on my bingo card today.”
“But here we are. I’m drinking their tears, now. #DeportSelenaGomez,” Parker wrote.
A representative for Gomez did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Times’ request for comment.
Flavor Flav tweeted his support for Gomez, writing Monday on X: “Team Selena Gomez. Again. That woman is always so brave to share her truth,,, and so many are quick to bully her.”
Gomez responded late Monday to the back-and-forth, writing on social media: “Oh Mr. Parker, Mr. Parker. Thanks for the laugh and the threat.”
Parker then tweeted “Selena Gomez has responded to me” with a laughing emoji. Parker has since used his surge in recognition as a way to promote American nationalism and Trump’s America First agenda.
“Woke up this morning to me sharing headlines w/Selena Gomez in every media outlet & on ever SM platform, all over the world. Good. While I have your attention: America is NOT a global welfare, jobs or education program. Stay home & build your own countries,” he tweeted Tuesday.
Meanwhile, when asked about Gomez’s video, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said Monday that the administration has “no apologies” for the ICE raids and is only after illegal immigrants with a criminal history.
“If they don’t like it, then go to Congress and change the law. We’re going to do this operation without apology,” Homan said on Fox News. “We’re gonna make our community safer. It is all for the good of this nation. And we’re gonna keep going. No apologies. We’re moving forward.”
The Trump administration’s new policy, known as “expedited removal,” empowers immigration officials to swiftly deport those who have entered the country illegally without going before a judge — even if they have been in the U.S. for up to two years and are far from the border. The policy, according to Times reports, could pave the way for mass deportations.
Times staff writers Jessica Garrison and Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
