George Lopez has taken a shot at President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
The comedian posted a message to his Instagram on Saturday that was specifically aimed at the president’s administration. Lopez made it clear he didn’t support Trump’s handling of immigration, which led to a 38 percent increase in deportation arrests in the president’s first 100 days. In that time, the arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal histories doubled.
“The Trump administration is deporting Latinos to make the streets safer ... you wanna make the streets safer, deport the police!” Lopez’s photo said.
The Instagram post soon had a comment section filled with angry users. Many told Lopez he should “move to Mexico” or said the only immigrants being deported were “illegal.”
Lopez’s comments draw on the rising tensions between people of color and law enforcement.
“This is not an indictment of all law enforcement, some still just beat you,” Lopez captioned his photo.
Police brutality has become a high-profile issue, especially with the rise of filmed encounters with law enforcement. Fatal police shootings in 2016 increased from the previous year by over 50 percent, The Washington Post reported. Several fatal shootings of black citizens that year ― such as Philando Castile and Alton Sterling ― were caught on camera and distributed through social media.
Latinos made up an estimated 16 percent of police-involved killings in 2016, according to “PBS NewsHour,” but these shootings usually get less attention. That’s because racial conflict in the country tends to play out as black and white, said Aaron Fountain, historian of youth activism at Indiana University.
“Americans don’t see any kind of historical context when Latinos are victims of state violence, despite the fact that there is historical context there,” Fountain told PBS.