Michelle Obama Says Trump’s Immigration Policies Still “Frighten” Her, Cause Sleepless Nights
Michelle Obama revealed that former President Donald Trump’s immigration stance still deeply unsettles her, claiming it “keeps me up” at night out of concern for how people in the U.S. illegally might be treated due to their race.
Speaking on the “On Purpose” podcast hosted by Jay Shetty, the former first lady, who often speaks about racial issues alongside her husband, former President Barack Obama, said that she and her brother Craig Robinson learned early in life that “no one was going to see beyond the color of our skin.”
Despite coming from a stable, upper-middle-class background and achieving significant success—including her husband becoming president—Michelle Obama expressed ongoing fears for marginalized communities in today’s America.
When asked by the liberal-leaning Shetty about her current fears, Obama pointed to Trump’s influence.
“In this current climate, for me, it’s what’s happening to immigrants,” she said.
She continued, “My fears are for what I know is happening out there in the streets all over the city,” referencing Chicago, her hometown, according to Fox News.
“Now that we have leadership that is sort of indiscriminately determining who belongs and who doesn’t,” she said, arguing that deportation decisions “aren’t being made with courts and with due process”—a claim Fox has characterized as inaccurate.
“I worry for people of color all over this country, and I don’t know that we will have the advocates to protect everybody,” she said. “And that makes me … that frightens me. It keeps me up at night.”
“And I and I see that when I’m driving around LA. I’m just looking in the faces of folks who could be a victim, and I’m wondering, how are you feeling, how do you feel standing on the bus stop,” she added.
Michelle appeared on the podcast alongside her brother, Craig Robinson, where they reflected on issues like bias, parenting, and their lifelong bond. While she never explicitly mentioned Trump by name, she made it clear that her concerns center around present-day immigration enforcement, which she compared to a childhood memory of her brother being wrongfully accused by a police officer of stealing a bike when he was 12.
Obama acknowledged that her concerns don’t stem from personal vulnerability, given her current lifestyle and security protections.
“It’s not the fear for myself anymore,” she said. “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.”
Her comments come at a time when the Trump administration has resumed aggressive immigration enforcement, targeting undocumented individuals who entered the country during the Biden presidency. According to Fox News, more than 100,000 people have been deported since Trump took office again.
Still, former ICE director Tom Homan stated at a Monday briefing that around 20 million illegal immigrants remain in the U.S.
Critics have pointed out the contradiction in Obama’s remarks, given that during her husband’s presidency, he was dubbed the “Deporter In Chief” for overseeing the removal of millions of undocumented migrants.
In fact, many of Barack Obama’s immigration enforcement tactics closely resembled those implemented under Trump.
As the Migration Policy Institute explained in a 2017 analysis, the Department of Homeland Security under Obama aimed at two major goals: “Increasing penalties against unauthorized border crossers by putting far larger shares into formal removal proceedings rather than voluntarily returning them across the border, as had been longstanding practice; and making noncitizens with criminal records the top enforcement target.”