‘Deport Selena Gomez’: Singer responds to politician who called for her exile

globalnews.ca:

On Monday, Selena Gomez posted and deleted a tearful Instagram video that showed her crying over the deportation of undocumented immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents under U.S. President Donald Trump’s new executive orders on immigration.

During his first week in office, Trump signed 10 executive orders on immigration and issued a slew of edicts to carry out promises of mass deportations and tighten border security.

“I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry,” Gomez, 32, said in the now-deleted 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,” she added, as she wiped away tears. In text over the video, she wrote, “I’m sorry” and added the Mexican flag emoji.

Gomez faced backlash after sharing the video with her 422 million Instagram followers. Many people, including conservative commentators, criticized Gomez for posting a video of herself crying over the mass deportations.

“Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people,” Gomez wrote on her Instagram story after deleting the crying video.

Shortly afterwards, Sam Parker, a 2018 Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Utah, posted, “Deport Selena Gomez” on X and pinned it to his profile.

In response to Parker, Gomez posted on her Instagram stories and wrote, “Oh Mr. Parker, Mr. Parker. Thanks for the laugh and the threat.”

Parker seemed proud to have received a response from the singer and pinned a new post to his profile. “Selena Gomez has responded to me,” he wrote, adding a crying laughing emoji.

Parker wasn’t the only person who criticized Gomez after she shared her now-deleted video on Instagram.