Selena Gomez Asks Her Millions of Followers to Defend DACA
“I think people really wanted to see me fail. I'd sit down in an interview and get the most harshly asked questions. Of course I got my heart broken. Of course I was pissed about it. There, everybody has it. I was so disappointed, because I never wanted my career to be a tabloid story.” — on dealing with heartbreak in the public eye, to Refinery29 in October 2015
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Selena Gomez might be the most followed person on Instagram with 126 million followers, but she only posts occasionally and rarely voices her opinions on political or cultural controversies. But when the Justice Department announced plans to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the singer of Mexican descent decided she must say something.
“My definition of a dreamer is someone that thinks big and believes anything is possible. The wonderful people being threatened by the unfortunate reversal of DACA are exactly that,” she wrote.
A post shared by Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) on Sep 8, 2017 at 9:39am PDT
Gomez wasn’t the only Latina to protest Trump’s decision to rescind DACA. Other celebrities spoke up on social media, including Camila Cabello, Lauren Jauregui, Gina Rodriguez and America Ferrera. “It’s incredible to me that you’ll pardon a man who is known for running his prison as a Latino concentration camp and call him a patriot, but then deport kids with a dream to be successful citizens with safe lives,” Jauregui tweeted, referring to Trump’s leniency toward Joe Arpaio , a former Arizona sheriff who defied a federal judge’s orders to stop racial profiling . “You disgust me,” she continued, “You and your squad of Republican elite/cowards are truly sick humans. Pardoning criminals and criminalizing the vulnerable.”
Ferrera, whose parents immigrated to America from Honduras, took a softer, but no less strong tone, writing: “Ending DACA would put 800,000 young people at risk of deportation. We can’t let their lives be used as political fodder-Call Now!#DefendDACA”
Gomez also urged her fans to take action and outlined how they could reach their representatives: “Please call The White House,” she wrote, “your local member of Congress and state Senators to let your voice be heard to defend DACA! You can find out how to reach out to your representatives here: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials (link in bio).”
