Bruce Springsteen on Wednesday released a protest song honoring Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two Minneapolis residents killed in what he called the "state of terror" visited on the city by President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration raids.
Springsteen said he wrote "Streets of Minneapolis" on Saturday, the day Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was shot dead by US Customs and Border Protection agents. Good, 37, a mother of three, was shot dead by an ICE agent on Jan. 7.
"It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors, and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good," the singer wrote in a social media post.
In "Streets of Minneapolis" the 76-year-old star sings of the immigration crackdown in the Minnesota city where residents like Pretti and Good have followed federal agents to record their operations and confront officers. The song lauds Minnesotans for resisting "smoke and rubber bullets" and using "whistles and phones" against "Miller and Noem's dirty lies."
Stephen Miller is US President Donald Trump's Homeland Security Advisor and Kristi Noem is US Secretary of Homeland Security.
A chorus joins him on the line "ICE out now!"
Following Pretti's shooting, Noem said Pretti had brandished a gun and Miller called him an "assassin" who tried to murder federal agents. Both claims were disproved by bystander videos.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump's administration was "focused on encouraging state and local Democrats to work with federal law enforcement officers on removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from their communities - not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information."
Springsteen has been a critic of Trump in both his terms.
Known by his fans as "The Boss," the rocker has also written songs that critique mistreatment of veterans and the working class. His 2001 “American Skin (41 Shots)” attacks police brutality and racism, and was inspired by the killing of immigrant Amadou Diallo by New York police.
His latest song ends with the refrain "we'll remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis," and the sounds of protesters chanting.
US judge blocks Trump policy targeting Minnesota's refugees
A US judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a recently announced Trump administration policy targeting the roughly 5,600 lawful refugees in Minnesota who are awaiting green cards.
In a written ruling, US District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis said federal agents likely violated multiple federal statutes by arresting some of these refugees to subject them to additional vetting.
"At its best, America serves as a haven of individual liberties in a world too often full of tyranny and cruelty," Tunheim wrote. "We abandon that ideal when we subject our neighbors to fear and chaos."
Tunheim issued a temporary restraining order blocking federal agents from arresting lawful refugees in Minnesota who have not been charged with immigration violations. The judge said the ruling would remain in place until he can hear additional legal arguments by civil rights groups challenging the policy.
The Trump administration sent thousands of immigration agents to Minneapolis and Saint Paul beginning in December in what officials described as an operation to enforce immigration laws and stop fraud.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of President Donald Trump's immigration agenda, criticized Tunheim's ruling on X, saying: "The judicial sabotage of democracy is unending."
The order was a major setback to "Operation PARRIS," a program announced by the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month and billed as "a sweeping initiative reexamining thousands of refugee cases through new background checks."
Tunheim said his order does not affect DHS's ability to reexamine refugee applicants and that it "does not impact DHS’s lawful enforcement of immigration laws."
Tunheim said the refugees impacted by his order are carefully vetted individuals who "have a right not to be subjected to the terror of being arrested and detained without warrants or cause."
Kimberly Grano, a lawyer at the International Refugee Assistance Project, which is involved in the litigation, said in a press release the order will put in place "desperately-needed guardrails" on federal agents.