Conservative commentator Priya Patel expressed surprise this week after members of her carefully cultivated right-wing audience responded to her defense of recent ICE raids by questioning whether her "ancestors built this country" and suggesting she relocate to India, sources confirmed Tuesday.
The incident occurred after Patel, who describes herself as "one of the good ones" in her social media bio, attempted to dunk on a liberal critic of the ongoing federal immigration enforcement operations that have arrested thousands across multiple cities since September. The raids, which have resulted in over 3,000 arrests in Chicago alone and expanded to Charlotte and other cities, drew criticism from immigration advocates concerned about constitutional violations.
"Yes, because I was born here. Because my ancestors helped build this country. Because my family assimilated, integrated, and contributed to this country," Patel wrote in what she believed would be a winning argument to her predominantly white conservative following, carefully listing her credentials as though reciting talking points from a Heritage Foundation pamphlet on model minorities.
The response was immediate and wholly predictable to everyone except Patel herself. Her mentions quickly filled with comments questioning whether her ancestors—who, records show, arrived in the 1980s—actually built anything, declarations that "Liberals has a message to ICE," and the ever-classic "go tell people they can't live here" accompanied by suggestions that she take her own advice and return to India, a country she has never lived in.
"I just don't understand," Patel have reportedly said, who has spent the past three years building a platform by assuring conservative audiences that she's "not like other immigrants" and that mass deportation efforts are perfectly reasonable. "I did everything right. I was born here. I'm a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen. I even used the phrase 'foreign invaders' in my original post."
Public opinion on immigration enforcement has grown increasingly negative in recent months, with ICE's favorability rating dropping from +15 in February to 13 points underwater by June, though Patel's audience appears to have maintained unwavering enthusiasm for the raids regardless of who gets caught in them.
