Selena Gomez is speaking out amid a turbulent time for Latinos in the United States.
The Emilia Pérez actress, who is of Mexican descent, spoke out in defense of her fellow Mexicans amid a wave of intense anti-immigrant sentiment and aggressive deportations on behalf of Donald Trump and his supporters.
As part of a litany of hostile executive orders, the former reality star embarked on a sweeping immigration crackdown as soon as he assumed office last week, which included sealing the U.S. asylum system for those without proper documents, tasking the military with deporting unauthorized immigrants, including ones without criminal records, as well as shutting the legal pathways, such as the CBP One app, that helped vet and admit the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the violence in countries such as Ukraine, Afghanistan and Haiti.
In response to her emotional statement, Selena subsequently received both hateful criticism and support.
Here's what to know.
How it started
On Monday, in a since-deleted Instagram Story, Selena appeared crying, and said: "I'm so sorry to all my people who are getting attacked — children. I don't understand."
She wrote on the Story: "I'm sorry," along with the Mexican flag, however she shortly thereafter deleted the video, and instead wrote in a subsequent Story: "Apparently it's not ok to show empathy to people."
The response
Among one of the most notable responses — or at least the one that Selena responded to — was from failed U.S. Senate candidate Sam Parker.
"Deport Selena Gomez," he tweeted. Selena, obviously, is a U.S. citizen, and was born in the United States, as was her mother Mandy Teefey.
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It's worth noting that Sam is not a prominent politician by any means, despite having "senate" alongside his name in his X handle; he merely ran for a Utah Senate seat once in 2018, though he was eliminated from contention early on and did not even qualify for the primaries.
On the other side of the spectrum, Selena did receive support from Flavor Flav, who tweeted: "Team Selena Gomez, Again. That woman is always so brave to share her truth [sic] and so many are quick to bully her."
Selena's response
In response to Sam, who is best known for his far-right views and previous anti-semitic statements, Selena simply wrote on her Instagram Stories: "Oh Mr. Parker, Mr. Parker. Thanks for the laugh and the threat."
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She has not further spoken out on the subject since.