Selena Gomez Breaks Down Over Immigration Crackdown Under Donald Trump's Leadership: 'My People Are Getting Attacked'

Selena Gomez expressed her heartbreak over Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, sharing an emotional video via Instagram on Monday, where she apologized and vowed to try everything to help those affected.

Written by Seema Sinha , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Jan 28, 2025 | 11:36 AM IST | 17.6K

Selena Gomez (Instagram)

Selena Gomez is grieving amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown since he resumed charge of the United States on January 20 following the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election win.

On Monday, January 27, the Emilia Perez star, 32, shared a video of herself sobbing on her Instagram Story, alongside the caption “I’m sorry” with a Mexican flag emoji.

“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,” Gomez said in the video, trying to control her tears.

In another Instagram Story, she wrote: “Apparently, it’s not ok to show empathy for people.”

The Calm Down singer’s post comes just a day after 956 people were arrested in a nationwide immigration crackdown, the most since Trump took office once again, per Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as quoted by BBC.

According to the outlet, the 956 arrests come after 286 arrests on Saturday, January 25, 593 arrests on Friday, January 24, and 538 arrests on Thursday, January 23.

According to the Migration Policy Institute via the BBC, former president Joe Biden carried out 1.5 million deportations during his first four years, numbers which match the deportation numbers in Trump’s first term.

Gomez had previously advocated for immigration.

In 2019, she produced the Netflix docuseries Living Undocumented, which centered on the lives of undocumented families in the United States.

She also opened up about her family’s own experience with crossing the Mexican border without documents in an emotional TIME op-ed in October 2019. Per Gomez, her aunt was the first out of her family to cross the border into the U.S. in the back of a truck in the 1970s.

Gomez added that her grandparents followed, and her father was born in Texas soon after. Gomez, at the time, shared she never forgets how blessed she is to have been born in the U.S.