Bruce Springsteen’s Touching ‘Streets of Minneapolis’ Video Highlights ICE Violence
Just a day after criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with his new song “Streets of Minneapolis,” Bruce Springsteen released a lyric video that features powerful footage from ongoing protests against the agency’s immigration enforcement operations in the city.
Published on Thursday, January 29, the video showcases Springsteen passionately singing the emotional lyrics while interspersing clips of the protests occurring in Minnesota. It juxtaposes scenes of ICE officers engaging forcefully with demonstrators on the snow-covered streets alongside footage of residents rallying with signs demanding that ICE depart from the city.
“Now they say they’re here to uphold the law/ But they trample on our rights/ If your skin is black or brown, my friend/ You can be questioned or deported on sight,” Springsteen sings. He continues, “In our chants of ‘ICE out now’/ Our city’s heart and soul persists/ Through broken glass and bloody tears/ On the streets of Minneapolis.”
Springsteen joins a chorus of prominent figures who have condemned ICE in light of recent events, following the shooting deaths of two Minnesota citizens in January. In two separate incidents, agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good, followed by another ICE officer fatally shooting Alex Pretti. While the Trump administration has argued that the officers acted in self-defense, eyewitness videos have led many to question this claim.
“If you believe in the power of law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using Gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens, if you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president,” Springsteen stated at a January 17 concert in New Jersey, just a week before Pretti’s death. He echoed the sentiments of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, saying, “ICE should get the f—k out of Minneapolis.”
“Streets of Minneapolis” marks one of the most politically charged releases by the rock legend. In a statement about the song, Springsteen noted that it was penned in response to “the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis.”
