Rachel Zegler models anti-ICE shirt from group backed by Ford, Open Society

Actress Rachel Zegler wore a T-shirt reading “ICE out of New York City” on her Instagram Stories this week, drawing fresh attention to the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the immigrant-advocacy group behind the design.

NDLON runs an online store that sells a line of city-specific “ICE out of” apparel, including versions for Los Angeles and the Twin Cities, with proceeds going to what the group calls its campaign and organizing work. Tax filings compiled by the watchdog group Influence Watch show NDLON’s 2021 IRS filing reported two grants — $500,000 and $300,000 — from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, part of the Open Society philanthropic network founded by George Soros, along with a $675,000 grant from the same foundation in 2022. The group has also drawn major grants from the Ford Foundation and the Tides Foundation and Tides Center; Ford alone gave $4 million in 2022. NDLON co-founder Pablo Alvarado has separately been honored with fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford.

The 24-year-old star of Disney’s 2025 live-action “Snow White” has repeatedly drawn political controversy since 2024. The film itself became one of the costliest flops in studio history: Financial filings indicate Disney’s net production spending topped $271 million, and industry estimates put the studio’s box-office loss at roughly $170 million.

Ms. Zegler’s most explosive moment came the day after the 2024 presidential election, when she wrote in Instagram Stories posts that she was “speechless” over Donald Trump’s win and declared, “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace.” She also wrote “F—- Donald Trump” and said the country had a “deep, deep sickness.” She apologized days later, saying she had “let my emotions get the best of me,” but the remarks drew calls from Megyn Kelly and others for Disney to recast the film.

Months earlier, in August 2024, Ms. Zegler had added “and always remember, free Palestine” to a post thanking fans for the film’s trailer. The comment, which drew nearly 9 million views, reportedly led producer Marc Platt to fly to New York to speak with her directly amid studio concern over the effect on co-star Gal Gadot, who is Israeli and faced a reported increase in death threats afterward.

Ms. Zegler also fueled backlash well before the film’s release by criticizing the 1937 animated original, telling one interviewer in 2022 that the cartoon’s prince “literally stalks” the title character and that the remake would drop the traditional love story. In March, she drew renewed criticism after telling an interviewer she was shaped by a “Eurocentric” media landscape that lacked Latina representation growing up — comments critics said overlooked decades of prominent Latina performers such as Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek and Rita Moreno.

Not every co-star has turned on her. “Shazam!” actor Zachary Levi, a Trump supporter, said this year he doesn’t hold the “never know peace” comment against Ms. Zegler, telling Variety she is “a really talented girl” who he believes “wants the best for the world deep down.”