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2025-01-29 09:00
Selena Gomez – the Texas-born pop star and actor whose paternal grandparents are from Mexico – has laughed off a failed Republican US Senate hopeful’s call for her to be deported from the country after she recorded a video of herself expressing sympathy for people affected by Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Responding to a comment from the former candidate that she should be “deported” over her video, Gomez took to social media and wrote in part: “Thanks for the laugh.”
Gomez nonetheless deleted the video amid a social media pile-on primarily driven by conservatives in favor of deportation raids that Trump’s administration has been carrying out early in his second presidency, which began on 20 January.
The clip in question showed the 32-year-old Gomez wiping away tears as she remarked: “I just wanted to say that I’m so sorry. All my people are getting attacked, the children. I don’t understand.
“I wish I could do something, but I can’t. I’ll try everything. I promise.”
Gomez’s lament captured the attention of the Trump administration. Asked in an interview with Fox News about the two-time Grammy award nominee’s video, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, cited the unfounded administration talking point that the exclusive focus of the immigration raids had been people with criminal histories who had come to the US without permission.
“If they don’t like it, then go to Congress and change the law,” said Homan with respect to raids that have generated reports of Indigenous Americans being detained and asked to produce proof of citizenship. “We’re going to do this operation without apology.”
The former Utah Republican US Senate candidate Sam Parker, for his part, published social posts accusing Gomez of having an “entitlement attitude” deserving deportation from the country of which she has been a lifelong citizen.
As has been widely reported, Gomez’s grandparents, Mary and Ricardo Gomez, immigrated to the US from Monterrey, Nueva León, Mexico, in the 1970s. Gomez’s father, also named Ricardo, was subsequently born in the US, and her grandparents obtained citizenship after nearly two decades of living in the country.
She was born in Grand Prairie, Texas, near Dallas, but has reportedly since bought a home in Encino, California, which previously belonged to late rock star Tom Petty. Gomez has spoken openly about how she has shared that home with her grandmother and grandfather, who in 2014 was the first to publicly confirm that the actor had lupus.
Nonetheless, one of Parker’s posts insulted Gomez as the “descendant of Mexican illegals” while adding: “Maybe Selena should be deported, too?” A second post from Parker read, “Deport Selena Gomez,” before he went on to taunt fans of the entertainer who came to her defense as well as media outlets reporting on his tirade.
Gomez ultimately deleted the video and then wrote on social media: “Apparently it’s not OK to show empathy for people.”
She then published a separate post reading, “Oh Mr Parker, Mr Parker. Thanks for the laugh and the threat.”
Parker in 2018 signed up to run for a Utah US Senate seat that was later won by the former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Parker failed to qualify for the party’s two-candidate primary as Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, won a term that ended in early January.
Gomez scored a No 1 single with Lose You to Love Me in 2019. She released her third consecutive No 1 album in 2020 and in 2021 began starring in the Emmy-nominated TV comedy series Only Murders in the Building.
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