Former first lady Michelle Obama said in a new podcast that she fears for immigrants and what she characterized as the lack of due process involved in the Trump administration’s deportation policies.
In Monday’s episode of “On Purpose with Jay Shetty,” Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, discussed the fear they experienced growing up of being targeted for their skin color.
Asked what has been the “hardest recent test of that fear,” the former first lady nodded to her highly recognizable identity but said she worries for immigrants and people of color who could be targeted by law enforcement.
“In this current climate, for me it’s, you know, what’s happening to immigrants,” Obama said, when asked about her fears.
“So it’s not the fear for myself anymore,” she continued. “I drive around in a four-car motorcade with a police escort. I’m Michelle Obama. I do still worry about my daughters in the world even though they are somewhat recognizable.”
“So, my fears are for what I know is happening out there in streets all over the city,” she added.
Obama expressed concern about the administration’s approach to the courts, in particular on immigration-related issues.
She said she is especially worried “now that we have leadership that is, sort of, indiscriminately determining who belongs and who doesn’t, and we know that those decisions aren’t being made with courts and with due process.”
The former first lady said she’s concerned decisions are being made from the viewpoint of, “you don’t look like somebody that belongs. I can determine just by looking at you that you’re a good person or you’re not a good person.”
“And knowing that there’s so much bias and so much racism and so much ignorance that fuels those kinds of choices, I worry for people of color all over this country. And I don’t know that we will have the advocates to protect everybody. And that makes me, that frightens me. It keeps me up at night.”
Her remarks echo concerns from many Democrats who say President Trump’s strategy of deporting accused gang members to El Salvador lacks due process and risks mistakenly deporting individuals, as in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
