The White House has hit back at Selena Gomez following her emotional video about Donald Trump's new deportation plans.
The 'Only Murders in the Building' actress - whose family is from Mexico - shared a tearful clip earlier this week after almost 1,000 people were arrested over three days across major cities in the United States as part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, and she has now received an official response which featured three women whose children were murdered by illegal immigrants.
Posting the video on X, the official White House account wrote: "Kayla Hamilton, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Rachel Morin were murdered by illegal aliens.
"Their courageous mothers had something to say to @SelenaGomez and those who oppose securing our borders. Watch (sic)"
In the video, which was titled "Moms of Victims of Illegal Immigrants SLAM Illegal Aliens: You didn't Cry for Our Daughters", the women praised Trump's immigration policies and blasted Selena.
Alexis Nungaray, the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, said: “Seeing that video, it’s hard to believe that it’s actually genuine and real because she’s an actress. My daughter was a child. There’s many other children whose lives were taken due to people who crossed here illegally.”
And Tammy Nobles, who lost her daughter Kayla Hamilton, questioned: “You don’t know who you’re crying for. What about our children who were brutally murdered and raped and beat to death and left on the floor by these illegal immigrants? They didn’t cry for our daughters.”
Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, said: “I just feel like it’s a ruse to deceive people and to garner sympathy for lawlessness. No one has stood up except for us mothers to cry out about our children.”
In her now-deleted post, Selena wept heavily and promised to "try everything" to help those facing deportation.
In a since-deleted post on Instagram, she cried: "I just want to say that I’m so sorry. 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 captioned the video with a Mexican flag emoji, and added: "I'm sorry."
The 32-year-old star was met with fierce backlash from Trump supporters accusing her of being performative.
After deleting the initial clip, she wrote on her Instagram Story: "Apparently it’s not OK to show empathy for people.”
She has since deleted that post too.
Last week, Trump signed a number of executive orders which expanded ICE's powers to arrest and detain unlawful migrants to the US.
