In a new video produced by the White House, the Trump administration blasted Selena Gomez for posting an Instagram video in which she filmed herself crying over deportations of undocumented immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Gomez deleted the original post within hours, after drawing criticism from conservative figureheads. “Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people,” she wrote in a follow-up post. But footage of Gomez crying continues to circulate online. The official White House post, titled “Moms of Victims of Illegal Aliens SLAM Selena Gomez: You Didn’t Cry for Our Daughters,” was published Friday. It includes pieces of Gomez’s original video, edited alongside reaction interviews with three women whose children were allegedly killed by undocumented people.
“I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry,” Gomez said in her Instagram Story video on Monday. “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.”
“Seeing that video, it’s actually hard to believe that it’s genuine and real, because she’s an actress,” Alexis Nungaray says in the video. Tammy Nobles adds later, “I am so happy that Trump won. I’m so glad that this is one of the first bills to help with immigration.” (The bill itself is not named in the video.)
“I just feel like it’s a ruse to deceive people and to garner sympathy for lawlessness,” Patty Morin says in the video.
Gomez’s reps were not immediately available for comment.
In the weeks since President Trump has taken office, he has emphasized his campaign promise of targeting undocumented immigrants in the U.S. with mass deportations. On Tuesday, he signed into law the Laken Riley Act, designed to institute stricter penalties on undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the U.S. He has also ordered a detention facility in Guantanamo Bay to house migrants that have been detained.
A Texas Department of Public Safety study last year founded that undocumented immigrants accounted for the lowest felony crime and violent felony crime rates compared to other groups.
Gomez, who is Mexican American, has been a vocal supporter of immigrant rights for several years. Speaking with Variety in October during the L.A. premiere of her Oscar-nominated musical “Emilia Perez,” Gomez said that she “definitely wants to stand by my people.” The actor’s comments came when asked to respond to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist remarks against Puerto Rico at a Trump rally in New York.
