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Bad Bunny has chimed in on the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that are taking place in his native Puerto Rico and all over the country.
The 31-year-old “Nuevayol” singer posted to Instagram a video, with commentary, of ICE agents conducting a raid on the island.
“Look, those mother— are in these cars, RAV4s. They’re here on [Avenida] Pontezuela,” he said of the officials arriving in the Puerto Rican city of Carolina, “instead of leaving the people alone and working.”
Grammy Award-winning rapper Doechii denounced the “ruthless attacks” on Los Angeles by the federal government while accepting the BET Award for female hip-hop artist on Monday night.
Since the onset of President Trump’s second term, the U.S. territory has been subjected to ICE raids, which have targeted the island’s largely Dominican immigrant population. For years, immigrants from the neighboring Caribbean island have been allowed to open bank accounts and obtain special driver’s licenses that indicate their immigration status. The Associated Press estimates that over 55,000 people from the Dominican Republic live in Puerto Rico.
Rebecca González-Ramos, ICE’s top investigator in Puerto Rico, told NPR that the agency has made nearly 500 arrests, of which roughly 75% have involved Dominicans. NPR further noted that fewer than 80 of the 500 people arrested have a criminal record, with the most common charge being reentry into the country following a deportation.
As ICE raids continue in L.A., Latinx musical acts like Becky G, Ivan Cornejo and Maná are taking to social media to voice their support of immigrant communities and protests
An added barrier for those apprehended on the island is that they must be transferred to the U.S. mainland to be processed.
“It’s something that creates a great difficulty because people who had ongoing immigration cases here have been detained — meaning their legal representation is in Puerto Rico,” ACLU lawyer Annette Martínez Orabona said in a news conference earlier this month. “I know it’s terrible anywhere in the United States, but in Puerto Rico’s case, it’s worse because we are not contiguous to the mainland. It’s not a matter of just getting in a car and getting there.”
Bad Bunny’s calling out of ICE’s activities comes as other major Latin American music acts have used their platforms to condemn the ICE raids and align their sympathies with immigrants. Becky G, Ivan Cornejo, Fuerza Regida, Junior H, Grupo Frontera and Maná are among the acts to have voiced concerns recently for the immigrant community.
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