Kristi Noem, the US Homeland Security Secretary, has criticised Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish for condemning ICE at the Grammys, calling them “ill-informed”.
Following the recent deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good at the hands of federal agents, as well as the continued conduct of ICE in Minneapolis, artists used their platform at the Grammys to speak out against Donald Trump’s administration.
Eilish, who was wearing an ‘ICE out’ pin, declared while giving her speech after winning ‘Song of the Year’ for ‘Wildflower’ that “no one is illegal on stolen land” and urged those watching, “We need to keep speaking up and keep protesting. Our voices really do matter.”
Meanwhile, Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny demanded “ICE out” and said, “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are Americans”. Upon winning ‘Best New Artist’, Olivia Dean also spoke about the power of immigration and her pride in being the granddaughter of an immigrant.
Now, Noem has responded, telling Fox News Digital, “I wish they knew what wonderful, amazing people our ICE officers are. Many of these officers live in these communities where they are doing enforcement activities.”
She then claimed of ICE agents, “Their families live there and that’s their neighbors they are protecting by getting dangerous criminals off the streets.” Noem also stated that the role of ICE is to go “after those murderers and rapists, people that are trafficking drugs, and protecting America”.
The US government official boasted that “historic lows in crime rates in this country, the lowest rate of murder and crime since we have been recording it for over 100 years,” and said that artists are ignoring these alleged statistics.
Noem added, “So it’s real results, people are feeling it in their communities, and it’s too bad that ill-informed famous musicians make statements like that without truly knowing what great Americans our ICE and Border Patrol officers are.”
Bad Bunny will once again have an opportunity to make his message loud and clear when he headlines the halftime show at the Super Bowl on February 8th.
Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, praised his speech at the Grammys and said the halftime show is a platform “used to unite people and to be able to bring people together”, which he believes Bad Bunny “understands”.
