Bruce Springsteen has condemned the violence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and blasted President Donald Trump in a new protest song titled Streets of Minneapolis.
Released Wednesday, the track was written in response to "the state terror being visited" on the Minnesota city where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were recently killed by federal immigration agents.
"I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today," Springsteen wrote in a social media post.
"It's dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbours and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good."
"A city aflame fought fire and ice, 'neath an occupier's boots," the 76-year-old musician sings in the song's opening verse.
He goes on to describe ICE agents as "King Trump's private army from the DHS (Department of Homeland Security)" and "federal thugs".
Backed by the muscular rock of his E Street Band and a choir, Springsteen name-checks the victims directly in the second verse, singing in his raspy voice:
"There were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good”
Springsteen has long criticised Trump administration
Political activism and commentary have been a central part of the music and career of Springsteen, whose life was recently the focus of biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere.
He has penned politically-driven music for decades, including most notably his chart-topping 1984 song Born In The USA — a bitter indictment of the Vietnam War.
The Boss has also heavily criticised Mr Trump since he was first elected to office in 2016.
In May, he released the live EP Land of Hope & Dreams, which included on-stage comments from a concert in Manchester where he called out the "corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration".
"They're rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and moral society," he said.
"They're abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators."
Earlier this month, Springsteen made public comments condemning the administration's "Gestapo tactics" at protests in Minnesota.
He also paid tribute to Renee Good during a set at January's Light of Day festival in his home state of New Jersey, dedicating his performance of The Promised Land to the 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot by an ICE agent.
The US president responded to Springsteen's remarks — and those of Taylor Swift — calling the rock star "highly overrated".
"Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
"And, importantly, he's not a talented guy — just a pushy, obnoxious jerk."
Springsteen is not the only artist to release anti-ICE songs.
The recent events in Minneapolis have prompted new releases from British protest singer Billy Bragg titled City of Heroes and US rock band My Morning Jacket with a benefit album titled Peacelands.
Punk rock group NOFX dropped the track Minnesota Nazis and Dropkick Murphys released Citizen I.C.E..
