The Japan Times - Country music star clashes with Trump govt over immigration raids

Zach Bryan, a Grammy winner who packs out stadiums with fans of a musical genre that usually appeals to conservatives, sparked the ire of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with an as-yet unreleased track in which he sings about ICE agents and police who "come bust down your door."

"I hope he understands how completely disrespectful that song is, not just to law enforcement but to this country," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told a right-wing podcaster after hearing a snippet.

DHS assistant secretary of public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said Bryan should "stick to Pink Skies, dude," in a reference to a previous hit by the songmaker.

The department, which has adopted an aggressive social media strategy that revels in the often-violent raids carried out by its Immigration and Customs Enforcment (ICE) officers, put out a montage video of arrests overlaid with another Bryan song, "Revival."

The lyrics in question come from "Bad News," part of which Bryan posted on Instagram.

"My friends are all degenerates, but they're all I got, the generational story of dropping the plot. I heard the cops came, Cocky motherfuckers, ain't they? And ICE is gonna come bust down your door," he sings.

"The middle finger's rising, and it won't stop showing. Got some bad news, the fading of the red, white, and blue."

On Tuesday, Bryan hit out at the backlash, insisting the song is about his love for his country.

Anyone who uses it "as a weapon is only proving how devastatingly divided we all are," he said on Instagram.

"When you hear the rest of the song, you will understand the full context that hits on both sides of the aisle."

Bryan, who served in the US Navy, and whose parents are both veterans, said he was not taking an extreme stance.

"Left wing or right wing we're all one bird and American. To be clear I'm on neither of these radical sides," he said.

The fracas is the latest between the Trump administration and pop culture figures.

Last week officials lashed out over NFL plans for Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny to headline the Super Bowl halftime show, with Noem insisting ICE agents would be present at an event where even the cheapest tickets are well out of reach for most undocumented migrants.

Thousands of immigration enforcement officers have fanned out across the United States in recent months as part of Trump's election pledge to carry out the largest deportation in US history.

While their raids are popular among some Trump supporters, the operations have been criticised as unnecessarily violent and apparently unfocused, seemingly targeting people solely on the basis of their skin color or the language they speak.

H.Hayashi--JT