America Ferrera got emotional while reacting to the recent Supreme Court decision on immigration stops while appearing on Thursday’s episode of The View.
On Monday, the Supreme Court lifted a restraining order from a judge that had restricted immigration agents from stopping people around L.A. solely based on their race, language, job or location. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was quick to criticize the decision and argued it could lead to officials targeting “anyone who looks Latino.”
When The View panelist Sara Haines asked Ferrera her reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision, the Barbie actress responded, “First of all, thank God for Justice Sotomayor.”
Ferrera, who is an activist for immigration rights, went on to say she was grateful for “people who still speak with a voice of reason and the values we recognize as American values” amid the decision.
“As an American, I’m angered and terrified to watch our constitutional rights be eroded by the Supreme Court. Everyone should be angered and terrified by it,” she said. “If any American can get pulled over because of the language they speak or the color of their skin or because they work in a low-wage job, who’s safe? So, as an American, I’m pissed off.”
She also spoke about being “a daughter of immigrants who grew up in California.”
She said that the family often had “conversations about immigration,” though they weren’t “close to what we’re living in now.” Ferrera continued, “I remember what it felt like to be a child in elementary school, going to school hearing whisperings and not knowing what that meant.”
“What I know right now is there are children that are terrified. There are children that are terrified, there are families that are terrified of their lives being destroyed in a moment,” Ferrera said. “I think about them, and I think we all have an opportunity to remember who we are and what we believe and what our values are and what we care about and to recognize that there are people suffering and that we all have the capacity to be human and to reach out and to care for each other.”
Ferrera opened up about the topic just two days after Sotomayor appeared on the Tuesday episode of The View. During her appearance, panelist Sunny Hostin asked Sotomayor about her recent dissents, including the one in the court’s immigration stops ruling earlier this week, and what she thought Americans should take away from what she wrote.
“Read the decisions, and not just my dissents, but the other side, too. Become informed citizens and not just reactive, because people will say things that are simply not there, or say things and misconstrue them,” Sotomayor urged the public. “The price we pay is whatever is happening today, as I indicated it’s going to affect a lot of people, but it affects your future and it affects the conduct of leaders in the future, because what we permit today is not going to be duplicated exactly tomorrow, it’s going to be something different.”
