Ivanka Trump Once Tweeted in Support of an Undocumented Immigrant—and It's Coming Back to Bite Her
Ivanka Trump once tweeted in support of an undocumented immigrant who worked her way up to a Wall Street job—and in the wake of the president’s controversial DACA decision, Twitter isn’t letting her forget it.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump called for an end to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program protecting undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from deportation. It didn’t take long for Twitter users to dredge up a 2015 tweet from Ivanka Trump linking to a list of what she’d been up to over the past week—including reading a Bloomberg article about Julissa Arce, an undocumented immigrant who became a Goldman Sachs star.
“We love this story about an undocumented immigrant who worked her way up on Wall Street,” the first daughter wrote at the time.
In re-sharing the 2015 tweet, people have been calling out Ivanka—who has said she tries to “stay out of politics”—for not speaking up in defense of DACA.
https://twitter.com/MrKennyJimenez/status/904934471824265217
Arce, who shared a stage with Ivanka at the 2015 Forbes Women’s Summit, condemned Ivanka’s support for her father in an essay for CNN published in September of 2016.
“[Ivanka] had an incredible opportunity to stand up to racism and hate when her father announced his candidacy, yet she has failed to disavow the hateful rhetoric that we have heard time and again,” Arce wrote. Last month, Arce tweeted that she “wouldn’t have been able to contribute to this country” if Trump were president before she gained citizenship.
As news spread Monday about Trump’s impending DACA announcement, immigrants who had been protected under the program—who are known as “Dreamers”—held a candlelight vigil outside Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner‘s home. They carried signs with phrases such as “Ivanka and Jared, please protect Dreamers, keep DACA!”
Dreamers may have seen a glimmer of hope in Ivanka because she hasn’t always expressed the same anti-immigration sentiments as her father. In April, not long after Trump announced his travel ban, Ivanka said on NBC that the U.S. may need to let in more Syrian refugees. But when it comes to DACA, she hasn’t spoken up.
Arce addressed Ivanka’s silence in a Monday tweet, writing, “Before things got Political, @IvankaTrump loved my story. But now her silence says it all.”