About

Selena Gomez Crying About Deportations is a viral video posted to American actress and singer Selena Gomez's Instagram Story in late January 2025 in which she cries about the deportation of Mexican people from the United States by ICE following new initiatives from President Donald Trump. Gomez posted the video on January 27th, 2025, and deleted it shortly after receiving criticism from some viewers (purportedly including many conservatives) who suggested her crying was performative. After deleting the video, Gomez posted to her Story, "Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people." The video of Gomez crying inspired memes and discourse online in the following days. The video of Gomez expressing sadness about deportations is not to be confused with the 2014 Selena Gomez Crying meme.

Origin

On January 27th, 2025, Selena Gomez posted and deleted a video on her Instagram Story in which she cries into the camera. In the video, she says, "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." The video was reuploaded by the PopCrave X^[1] page that day, garnering over 25,000 likes in under a day.

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Reportedly, Selena Gomez deleted the video later on January 27th, 2025, after receiving backlash for crying over the deportations. She later posted to her Story, "Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people."

Also on January 27th, X^[2] user @EndWokeness posted an image of Selena sleeping next to an image of her crying, writing, "Selena Gomez when 300,000+ migrant kids go missing vs Selena Gomez when criminals are deported back home:," garnering over 44,000 likes in under a day. That day, Variety^[3] published a piece about Gomez's video in which the publication claimed it was largely "conservative backlash" that caused her to delete it.

That same day, X^[4] user @MostlyPeacefull posted a meme depicting Patrick Bateman in a MAGA hat, writing, "Listening to Selena Gomez crying on repeat," garnering over 3,700 likes in a few hours.

Also on January 27th, 2025, conservative political activist Charlie Kirk made a post to X^[5] that garnered over 88,000 likes in a day, criticizing Gomez for crying, writing:

Where was the sobbing over the 100,000 Americans dead from fentanyl poisoning? Where were these tears over the 340,000 children who went missing after being trafficked over our border? Why wasn't there a breakdown for Rachel Nungary, Rachel Morin, or Laken Riley? I guess those Americans weren't "your people?"

Later that night, X^[6] user @_thebadliar made a post defending Gomez. In the post, they shared a screenshot of a TikTok video that Gomez commented on in which she shared that she was crying about what was going on. The poster wrote, "People asked her to speak up. She did today. She is getting harassment," garnering over 18,000 likes in a day.

Also on the night of January 27th, 2025, X^[7] user @DeIudedShaniqwa made a post claiming that pop artist Lana Del Rey told Selena Gomez, “you should pack your bags and go back to Mexico. Take your abuela with you," garnering over 148,000 likes in a day. This is misinformation and never happened.

YouTuber^[8] and conservative commentator Candace Owens discussed the video in a negative light that same night, suggesting the crying was performative, garnering over 900,000 views in a day.

On January 27th, X^[9] user and conservative commentator Benny Johnson (@BennyJohnson) made a post that criticized Gomez for calling Mexicans "her people," gaining over 178,000 likes in a day, writing:

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.

Various Examples

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