Bruce Springsteen blasts ICE ‘Gestapo’ tactics
Bruce Springsteen attacked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Saturday during a surprise performance at a New Jersey music festival, telling the agency to “get out of Minneapolis” and dedicating his song “Promised Land” to murdered civilian Renee Good.
“I wrote this song as an ode to American possibilities,” Springsteen said onstage during the final night of Light of Day Winterfest 2026 at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey.
“It was about the beautiful but imperfect country that we are, and the country that we could be. Right now, we live in incredibly critical times. The United States, the ideals and values that it stood for for the last 250 years, are being tested like never before in modern times,” he said.
Springsteen argued that recent events in Minneapolis, where ICE agents are picking up immigrants, U.S. citizens and legal residents of the United States, and detaining them or deporting them without allowing them to communicate, have plunged American democracy into a dark situation.
“These values and these ideals have never been more threatened than today,” he told the audience gathered to raise funds for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological diseases.
“As we gather together tonight in this beautiful display of love, care, thoughtfulness and community, if you believe in democracy and freedom and believe that the truth always matters, you must speak out and that is worth fighting for,” he continued. “If you believe in the power of the law and that no one is above it. If you oppose heavily armed, masked federal troops invading an American city, using Gestapo tactics against our citizens. If you believe you do not deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, send a message to this president, as the mayor of this city said, ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
“This song is for you and in memory of a mother of three, American Renee Good,” Springsteen concluded, taking out his harmonica.
Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed earlier this month by ICE agent Jonathan Ross as she tried to flee. US Homeland Security Secretary Krisi Noem called her a “domestic terrorist” despite video evidence refuting the accusation.
Springsteen’s antipathy toward Trump goes back years, when the famous musician called his 2016 campaign a “scam” and called Trump’s potential to inflict damage “a very dangerous thing.” Springsteen blasted Trump’s “inhumane” border immigration policies in 2018 during his one-man Broadway show and said he was “damaged to the core of his being.”
The rock superstar continued that momentum this year, calling Trump a “traitor” in remarks at the launch of his European tour in May, and telling Time magazine in September that the president should be consigned to the “dustbin of history.”
