Selena Gomez has deleted a video where she breaks down over Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown after receiving backlash.
The 32-year-old American singer and actress, who is of Mexican heritage, appeared to be reacting to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The president has promised the biggest deportation in US history, and the White House shared images on Friday of men in shackles being taken on a military plane with the caption: “Deportation flights have begun.”
On a now deleted Instagram video on Monday, Gomez said through tears: “I just want 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.”
After receiving some backlash online, she replaced the video with a post on her Instagram story which read: “Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people.”
That post has now been deleted too.
One of her critics was Republican US Senate candidate Sam Parker, who said she should “be deported” on X.
Gomez appeared to respond on her Instagram story, writing: “Oh Mr Parker, Mr Parker. Thanks for the laugh and the threat.”
Gomez recently starred in the Oscar-nominated Spanish-language musical Emilia Perez, playing one of four Mexican women involved with a cartel.
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Her video came after Mr Trump signed 10 executive orders on immigration and issued a slew of edicts to carry out promises of mass deportations and tightening border security.
Some of the orders have had an immediate impact, with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement saying it made an average of 710 immigration arrests daily between Thursday and Monday – up from a daily average of 311 in the year to September under former president Joe Biden.
The Trump administration expanded arrest priorities to include anyone in the country illegally, not just people with criminal convictions, public safety or national security threats and migrants stopped at the border.
While some of Mr Trump’s orders are expected to take far longer to have an impact, they have generated fear in immigrant communities.
Those fears have been stoked by the fact the government has ended a policy to avoid arrests at “sensitive locations”, including schools, hospitals and places of worship.
There are about 4 million unauthorised Mexican migrants in the US, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2022 research.
