SELENA Gomez was overcome with emotions as she shared her sentiments over the deportations of undocumented immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a video.
The 32-year old Emilia Pérez actress and former Disney star, whose father is of Mexican descent, shared a now-deleted Instagram video where she broke down in tears over recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids targeting undocumented individuals with criminal records.
“I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry,” said Selena, crying in a video.
“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.”
This resulted in her getting conservative backlash online. Gomez’s opinions did not sit well with some critics, who bashed her for crying over undocumented immigrants in the US.
“Selena Gomez picked illegals over America b/c she’s the 3rd gen descendant of Mexican illegals who received citizenship in the ’87 Amnesty,” said Sam Parker, a Republican politician from Utah.
Gomez took down the clip after it received mixed reactions and posted a now-deleted response against her critics.
“Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people,” she said in another Instagram story.
Gomez is known as an outspoken immigration advocate. In 2019, she produced a Netflix documentary entitled Living Undocumented, which details the on-going immigration crisis. She shared her family experience in the said film.
Aside from that, Gomez also wrote an article in Time in the same year, titled, ‘I’m Afraid for My Country’, which narrates her family’s struggle to gain citizenship in the United States.
“I’m concerned about the way people are being treated in my country. As a Mexican-American woman I feel a responsibility to use my platform to be a voice for people who are too afraid to speak,” she wrote in the article.
Since President Trump’s inauguration last week, his administration has emphasized strengthening efforts to remove undocumented immigrants from the country. On Sunday, ICE reported making 956 arrests and placing 554 detainers in a single day.
This move gained mixed reactions from Americans. Some support Trump’s mass deportation policies, while others say that it only heightens the discrimination against the immigrants.
