Selena Gomez cried on camera about ICE raids and mass deportation but did we need to see it?
After President Donald Trump took office once again and declared a national border emergency last week, immigration authorities reported that they made close to 1,200 arrests in just one day. Ever since then, social media has been flooded with footage of mothers, fathers, friends, spouses and even children being forcefully removed from their homes. Naturally, millions responded with shock, fear, and outrage about these controversial arrests.
One of them was singer and actress Selena Gomez, whose paternal grandparents are from Mexico. The artist posted a video of herself crying in despair on Monday 27 January 2025. However, the response to the video has been less than supportive…
“I just want to say that I’m so sorry. All my people are getting attacked,” Gomez said through tears on her Instagram story. “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.”
Selena Gomez shares new Instagram story crying amid the deportation of Mexicans:
“I’m so sorry. All my people are getting attacked. The children, I don’t understand. I wish I could do something.” pic.twitter.com/9H7ojMhpCN
— Pop Base (@PopBase) January 27, 2025
The controversial videos were captioned “I’m sorry” alongside the Mexican flag emoji.
Gomez’s paternal family were undocumented immigrants from Mexico who arrived in the US illegally in the 1970s. This explains why the biracial actor feels so deeply affected by the matter.
In 2019, Gomez also produced a Netflix documentary titled Living Undocumented which chronicled the lives of multiple undocumented families in the US.
However, the internet felt less than compassionate as they watched the raw footage. Instead, they accused Gomez of making these events about herself and taking away attention from the actual victims and their families.
when you’re in the pick me olympics and your opponent is selena gomez https://t.co/tVDKYEEkLC pic.twitter.com/G2ySXcI7sL
— firouzeh🇵🇸 (@SAWEEETlES) January 27, 2025
Selena gomez ability to always play the victim needs to be studied pic.twitter.com/MTp5i9U11r
— Messy (@waldorfnewyorks) December 7, 2024
Selena Gomez is American.
Her mom is American. Her Mexican father abandoned them. She went from living in this small Texas home to this $5M palace in LA.
She’s a billionaire because of America
Yet she does not consider us “her people”
We are over ungrateful woke victim brain rot pic.twitter.com/LEGmorbYjo— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 27, 2025
And many netizens started to throw the worst insult in the Gen Z handbook at her, “pick me,” while slamming Gomez for supposedly having a “victim complex.”
This led the Only Murders In The Building actor to delete the video and write “Apparently it’s not ok to show emotions,” in a subsequent story.
However, the abuse towards Gomez intensified with one Republican US Senate candidate Sam Parker openly calling for her to be “deported.” The politician and other right-wing actors dubbed the video of Gomez crying as “un-American.”
This revealed an ugly layer of xenophobia and anti-mixed-race bias that was rearing its ugly head in the backlash.
Thus, many netizens started to jump to Gomez’s defence, highlighting that she has consistently spoken out about the treatment of immigrants in the US to raise awareness and funds for them.
In 2019, Selena Gomez produced a Netflix documentary titled “Living Undocumented” chronicling the lives of undocumented families in the United States. She also speaks on her grandparents being Mexican immigrants. This isn’t the first time she’s spoken on this matter. pic.twitter.com/NC1AEqLJaB
— ً (@americanreqiuem) January 27, 2025
selena gomez being attacked for having empathy for innocent lives pic.twitter.com/R8N3JxceZt
— ً (@ClNEMADDlCT) January 27, 2025
Y’all will not pull that fucking victim card this time, these are actual TEARS for her people! She’s showing empathy and if you guys can’t show that.. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM. Not Selena Gomez. Fuck all of you losers. pic.twitter.com/41CE9Jz62E
— Selenur (@yourightselena) January 27, 2025
it’s insane how selena gomez is the first celebrity (i think) showing this kind of empathy for people in real time and still manage to receive hate for it… https://t.co/6IHrJ9kYaU
— ً (@ultravlcz) January 27, 2025
A couple of keen-eyed netizens also pointed out that Gomez has consistently been read as white throughout her career, rather than Mexican American or biracial, which was leading many people to discredit this vital aspect of her personhood and life.
“Selena Gomez has never suffered racism for being Mexican” pic.twitter.com/2bQYgMTrWW
— Selena Gomez Updates (@SGchartupdate) January 27, 2025
Selena Gomez’s grandparents are immigrants btw. ik yall love to deny her mexican heritage but this isn’t the time. There are people majorly affected by these deportations. She’s a mexican who can’t help her people bc america is turning into a fascist oligarchy. https://t.co/rTu1n0Hmht
— Tayoncé Defense Attorney is a crashout baby (@lesbeyonsay) January 27, 2025
Gomez’s emotional video and the backlash it sparked show how fine netizens perceive the line between advocacy and self-centredness: While some saw it as a heartfelt response from someone personally connected to the issue, others felt it shifted the focus away from those directly affected.
So did it help us to see Gomez cry? Was it a sign of empathy or a distraction from the gruesome reality that many immigrant families are facing right now? The answer is elusive and buried under many different perspectives on the matter. But one thing is clear: Gomez was definitely not the only person shedding tears over the brutal and inhumane mass deportations.
Despite a relatively calm couple of years at the US border that saw arrests for illegal crossings sink by more than 80 per cent, Trump officials have issued arrest quotas to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), asking them to arrest “at least 1,200 to 1,500” people per day, as reported by The Washington Post.
According to the publication, the president has been “disappointed” with the results of his mass deportation campaign so far and decided to ramp things up.
The new administration demanded that the agency’s field offices should make 75 arrests per day and managers would be held accountable for missing those targets.
