By Andrew Hay
Jan 28 (Reuters) – 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 U.S. 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 President Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Advisor and Kristi Noem is U.S. 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.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; editing by Donna Bryson and David Gregorio)
