There’s a familiar storyline playing out online again, one that starts with red hats and ends in regret.
A South Florida woman, a former Trump voter, went viral after posting tearful videos pleading for ICE to release her undocumented, terminally ill father from detention.
He’s lived in Florida for decades, worked, and paid his bills. But now he is sick and detained.
Highlights
- Cynthia Hotom, a former Trump supporter, begged ICE to release her terminally ill, undocumented father from detention in tearful viral videos.
- Hotom reflected deeply, admitting her Trump vote supported a system that dehumanizes people, calling it an ultimate betrayal of her roots.
- The viral videos sparked harsh criticism online, with many doubting Hotom’s regret and blaming her for her father’s detention.
A former Trump supporter posted a video begging for her dying father to be released from ICE custody
Image credits: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
“No one deserves to go through something like this behind bars,” a tearful Cynthia Hotom says, adding that her father has lived in Florida for over half his life and worked the same construction job for decades.
The videos, first shared by filmmaker Billy Corben, racked up tens of thousands of comments, many of them brutally unsympathetic.
“This is about being human—about love, connection, and presence. I feel that it would be immoral and inhumane to let a man who is suffering and terminally ill spend what little time he has left in pain and isolation,” she says in the video, begging, “Please don’t let him die in his cell.”
Image credits: billycorben/Instagram
“Please don’t let his final memories be those of pain and isolation,” Hotom continues. “The American flag stands for compassion, kindness, liberty, and justice for all. We’re all human, and today I’m asking for one human act of compassion to please let my dad come home.”
A few days later, in June, Hotom posted another video, admitting how her support for Trump possibly led to the situation. The video is making the rounds again, and people are only more mad.
“When I voted for Trump,” she said, “I supported the very system that allows this kind of cruelty to happen. I’ve spent the last few days reflecting, and I feel like I’ve come through some sort of revelation.”
Image credits: billycorben/Instagram
“My vote wasn’t just a mistake; it was the ultimate betrayal of the very people I come from,” she admitted.
“I feel like living in South Florida surrounded by Republican voices, I was brainwashed into thinking I was one of them. I fell for the propaganda, the normalization of cruelty, and I believed the lies that gave me a false sense of security and belonging.”
She continued, “I regret my vote so so so deeply, and if I could go back and change it, I would. I’m reading, listening, learning, and unlearning everything that I thought I knew.”
However, commenters online had little sympathy for the regretful Trump voter.
“But if your dad wasn’t arrested, would you still have these regrets?” asked one person on Instagram.
The woman said she regrets voting for Trump ‘so so so deeply’
“‘I was supporting a man and a movement that dehumanizes people’ But now it’s a problem when you’re the one he’s dehumanizing but wasn’t a problem before when you thought it was just everyone else,” said another.
A third commented on Hotom’s statement about being raised around Republicans. “I live in Kansas, surrounded by Republicans. Raised by Republicans, attended catholic school, and I grew up to a very left-leaning agnostic.
“Because I think for myself and I have a conscience. I possess empathy. I think critically. And the only vote that made sense this time around was for Kamala Harris. Stop blaming others for your choices,” the user said, reflecting on their own experiences.
Image credits: billycorben/Instagram
A fourth person empathized with the father but had questions: “I’m really trying to be a caring human being here. But for every Trump voter who has gone through this, how many Harris supporters, who did the right thing mind you, are also going through this? Really makes it hard to be sympathetic.”
“She didn't give a f**k until it affected her. If they hadn’t arrested her dad, she’d still support this happening to other peoplem [sic]” a netizen said.
“He started his first campaign with hate against immigrants. How could you NOT know?” questioned another.
Image credits: billycorben/Instagram
Another person said, “Being in the ‘Find Out’ phase is really messing with a lot of people who thought they were exempt from this hate! You got what you voted for, maybe relocate with your dad so he isn’t alone because it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon.”
But there were also some people who came to Hotom’s defense. “These comments are BONKERS. When someone has a realization, changes their mind, and vulnerably admits it, the response here is crass, cruel and inhuman?
“We won’t ever come back from this insanity if we can’t muster a modicum of compassion for people who have been firmly sitting in the MAGA camp especially and are suffering from these policies, when they change!” they added, asking, “Do you want to find a way to end this?”