The pop star is one of several musicians speaking out against ICE after an agent fatally shot a 37-year-old woman last week. Eilish shared posts condemning the organization – and now, the Department of Homeland Security has responded.
Outcry over the death of Renee Nicole Good continues in the US and among the many artists criticising Donald Trump’s administration is Billie Eilish.
The nine-time Grammy winning singer-songwriter took to her Instagram after an ICE agent fatally shot the 37-year-old in Minneapolis last week, sharing several posts including one calling ICE a “federally funded and supported terrorist group” and another listing 32 people who reportedly died in ICE custody last year.
The artist also encouraged US citizens to call their representatives in Congress to demand that ICE be defunded, and for the officer who fired the deadly shot in Minneapolis to be arrested and charged immediately.
The tragedy which occurred last Wednesday has sparked a wave of protests across the US, while Donald Trump and JD Vance have claimed that Good was trying to run over the agents with her car and that the officer was acting in self-defense.
Now, the US Department of Homeland Security has responded to Billie Eilish, with assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin saying: “Clearly, Billie Eilish has not seen the newly released footage, which corroborates what DHS has stated all along - that this individual was impeding law enforcement and weaponized her vehicle in an attempt to kill or cause bodily harm to federal law enforcement.”
McLaughlin claims that the officer, identified as Jonathan Ross, had been “in fear of his own life (and) the lives of his fellow officers and acted in self-defense”.
“The American people can watch this video with their own eyes and ears and judge for themselves.”
McLaughlin continued: “ICE does not separate families. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administrations’ immigration enforcement. It’s garbage rhetoric from the likes of Billie Eilish that is leading to a 1,300 per cent increase in assaults and 3,200 per cent increase in vehicle rammings against our brave law enforcement.”
Widely circulated video footage of the incident shows that Good had actually been driving the opposite way and was not trying to ram her vehicle into the ICE agents.
Eilish’s posts are part of wider outcry from artists such as Dave Matthews, Mark Ruffalo, Neil Young and Duran Duran, who have all spoken out against ICE and the Trump administration’s immigration policies in the wake of Good’s death.
Neil Young wrote in an op-ed on his website: “Something has to change this. We know what to do. Rise up. Peacefully in millions. Too many innocent people are dying. It’s ICE cold here in America.”
As for Stranger Things’ Joe Kerry, he took to social media to hit out at Donald Trump for his lack of compassion. He shared a photo of Trump’s Truth Social post and wrote over the top: “Zero human decency. Stop this man”.
The Minneapolis City Council released a statement honoring Good as a beloved resident, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz urged the public not to fall for what he called the “propaganda machine”, while Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press conference: “This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.”
“They're already trying to spin this as an action of self-defence,” Frey added. “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly - that is bullsh*t.”
Frey went further, calling for federal agents to leave Minneapolis and declaring: “Get the f*ck out of Minneapolis.”
