All the artists singing against Donald Trump’s ICE
Since the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has escalated its aggressions across towns and cities in the US, music has been shy to respond, until now.
From grassroots musical causes to big numbers, Far Out highlights the anticipated and not-so-expected musical protests the US is seeing in response to ICE.
Four days after intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was shot ten times by ICE agents, folk rock legend Bruce Springsteen sprang to meet his reputation as the voice of the people. The tireless voice behind anthems like ‘How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?’ is unafraid to get straight to the point, singing about war, poverty, and now, “federal thugs”, in his latest song ‘Streets of Minneapolis’.
“We’ll take a stand for this land”, his rugged song goes, echoing the greats of activist music like his own hero, Pete Seeger. His rough vocals evoke the bitter taste in his mouth as he disappointedly recalls the names of those who lost their lives on the streets of Minneapolis during the past two weeks: “And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets, Alex Pretti and Renee Good”. Springsteen hadn’t shied from calling out President Donald Trump, holding him the “most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime” in an endorsement video for Kamala Harris in 2024.
Although country music is known to be conservative, its lamenting ballads of struggle and heartbreak have mountains of material to work with at a time like this. The general silence amongst the genre most known to be the voice of real Americana is deafening, but there are a few voices that have surprised rigidly right-wing country fans. Most controversially, singer-songwriter Zach Bryan stepped up to the challenge, releasing ‘Bad News’ in January, a sentimental reflection on the state of worry faced by many across his beloved South.
Harmonious, sincere, backed by instrumentation so textured it almost invoked an orchestra, the song makes blatant reference to the federal organisation that’s detained almost 70,000: “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door/ Tried to build a house no one builds no more, but I got a telephone/ Kids are all scared and all alone”.
The song garnered a heavy response from state bodies, with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem saying that the song “attacks individuals who are just trying to make our streets safe”. The backlash prompted Bryan to go back on the song’s meaning, writing on Instagram, “To be clear, I’m on neither of these radical sides”.
Jesse Welles was bolder in his approach, directly calling out the agency from his song’s title: ‘Join ICE’ is blatant, brave, and ingenious, artfully converting traditional folk rhythms to turn an innocent-sounding melody into a bloodbath of irony.
“We can sneak around town hunting Working Folks down, I hear they get a great benefit plan, join ICE for respect and power, join ICE, I hear they got great hours,” the witty Arkansas poet sang live on The Late Show with Steven Colbert. Welles has been nominated for four Grammys this year, and recognition for his clever anti-ICE riddling inspired other artists the likes of Billie Eilish to speak up.
Former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello released his own political song and music video, ’Pretend You Remember Me’, featuring the faces and voices of immigrant Americans facing displacement. His courageous act was released to raise money for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, and upon a warm reception, he performed a concert to raise donations for Good’s and Pretti’s families in Minneapolis, which took place on January 30th.
A final example of musical solidarity was displayed by grassroots collective The Singing Resistance, who have been taking their music to the streets and Churches of Minneapolis, to sing about community and to “abolish ICE”, a body that has caused so much damage to their home city. As with all aforementioned artists, their work has lit the torch that Minneapolis residents carry along in demonstrations, singing their way through the frozen January nights, as they hope to bring back peace to the country’s second-happiest city.
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