Amber Heard Faces Backlash Following ICE Tweets
Amber Heard is being blasted by Twitter users for a tweet she made in the early morning hours Tuesday. Among the many responses to her tweet are many who found it racist and “out of touch.” Heard has since deleted the tweet, but here’s what it said, as reported by TMZ.
“Just heard there’s an ICE checkpoint in hollywood, a few blocks from where I live. Everyone better give their housekeepers, nannies and landscapers a ride home tonight…,”
Some initial responses suggested to the actress that, although they didn’t think she meant anything offensive, it might be a good idea to delete the post. One user tweeted that she is a fan but that “this stereotype should have long been eradicated.” Another said, “I can see where you were going but somewhere along the way you took a wrong turn. Delete this sis.”
Some pulled her former relationship with actor Johnny Depp into the discussion, saying things like they thought she was smarter than to make a statement like that but that the fact that she dated Depp might be a sign they were wrong. Still others called her out as a racist while others came to her defense, with one in particular saying that they had taken her comment as sarcasm that was “calling out the elites who do hire these ppl in this profession.”
Amber Heard's tweet about an 'ICE checkpoint' fires up critics https://t.co/ZqgZALHMYj pic.twitter.com/6lDUi9QzRn
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 3, 2018
Amber did not apologize for her statement but tweeted this about 10 minutes later.
“Checkpoints on your home streets…. Is this the ‘great’ America we’re aiming for? Raids, fences and police-state like checkpoints don’t feel like the ‘land of the free’ our immigrant ancestors built.”
As noted by New York Daily News, Heard has been outspoken about her objections to President Trump’s immigration policies that have separated children from their families. She protested with celebrities such as Lena Dunham and Bella Thorne near the U.S.-Mexico border over the weekend.
In the tweet storm that took place Tuesday, some wondered whether Amber was confusing an ICE checkpoint with a DUI checkpoint that had been put in place because of the Fourth of July holiday, and that may indeed be the case. TMZ reports that they checked and there were no U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) checkpoints during the time period Heard was tweeting, and ICE made this statement in response to the uproar.
“ICE does not conduct checkpoints for immigration enforcement. We conduct targeted enforcement based on intelligence leads and law enforcement investigations.”
