But they trample on our rights<\/p>\n
If your skin is black or brown my friend<\/p>\n
You can be questioned or deported on sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
A background chorus sings chants of \u201cICE out of Minneapolis,\u201d interlaced by drums and a harmonica solo.<\/p>\n
Springsteen, a 76-year-old giant of rock and folk with 20 Grammy wins, discusses a violent winter, where \u201cbloody footprints\u201d mark where \u201cmercy should have stood\u201d.<\/p>\n
His lyrics name two Minneapolis protesters killed by federal agents this month: Renee Good, a poet who was shot as she appeared to drive away from an agent; and Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse shot after a swarm of agents restrained him and appeared to secure his handgun.<\/p>\n
Trump and Administration officials initially suggested both Good and Pretti were trying to harm the agents, but have backtracked amid contradictory evidence and condemnation that crosses the political and cultural spectrum. <\/p>\n
Springsteen references White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s \u201cdirty lies\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump Administration is focused on encouraging state and local Democrats to work with federal law enforcement officers on removing dangerous criminal illegal aliens from their communities \u2013 not random songs with irrelevant opinions and inaccurate information,\u201d Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Springsteen\u2019s song, which he said he wrote the day Pretti was killed, reflects a wider backlash among musicians to Trump\u2019s immigration policies. Billy Bragg, an English rocker and long-time political activist, released his song City of Heroes on Tuesday. And independent artists had previously uploaded Minneapolis-specific protest tracks to YouTube and SoundCloud.<\/p>\n
Like Bragg, Springsteen has supported left-leaning causes throughout his decades-long career. He opened his European tour last year by calling Trump \u201cunfit\u201d, and Trump has dismissed him in turn as a \u201cdried out \u2018prune\u2019 of a rocker\u201d.<\/p>\n
Springsteen\u2019s song The Ghost of Tom Joad discussed poverty, and We Are Alive describes America\u2019s historical struggles for civil rights. <\/p>\n
His classic Born in the USA laments the repercussions of the Vietnam War, but the irony of its lyrics is often lost on politicians, including Trump, who have turned it into a feel-good staple of their political rallies.<\/p>\n
The title of Springsteen\u2019s new song is an obvious reference to Streets of Philadelphia, which Springsteen wrote in the 1990s for the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia, one of the first mainstream films about the HIV\/Aids crisis.<\/p>\n
In December, the Washington Post reported that the ICE is planning a US$100 million ($165m) recruitment pitch as it seeks to hire thousands of agents and deport thousands of people each day. <\/p>\n
The campaign uses ads that echo action movies and video games, and targets gun rights enthusiasts, military supporters, podcast listeners and country music fans.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But they trample on our rights If your skin is black or brown my friend You can be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17901,20306,8239,534,95,795,16719,156,11784,14051,6101,10046,305,917,9860,108979,21409,111,139,69,1118,16348,1523,148077,145549,25394,37058,13181,70128,1629,28359,19993,8628,44226,148076,2737,9939,5412,11987,1361,1865,2179,9938,13118,23939],"class_list":["post-256756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-agents","tag-alex","tag-american","tag-amid","tag-and","tag-bruce","tag-emotional","tag-entertainment","tag-fatal","tag-federal","tag-good","tag-hands","tag-have","tag-immigration","tag-king","tag-minneapolis","tag-names","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-outrage","tag-over","tag-pointedly","tag-pretti","tag-protest","tag-raids","tag-released","tag-renee","tag-rock","tag-shootings","tag-slams","tag-song","tag-springsteen","tag-springsteens","tag-star","tag-states","tag-streets","tag-sweeping","tag-that","tag-today","tag-trump","tag-united","tag-violence","tag-widespread"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}