Lady Gaga Blasts ICE at Tokyo Concert: ‘My Heart Is Aching’

Lady Gaga spoke out against ICE and the way its agents were treating people in Minneapolis during the penultimate date of her Japanese tour on Thursday night. She discussed the need for accountability and more while introducing her song “Come to Mama,” which calls for unity.

“We need to get back to a place of safety and peace and accountability,” she told the audience at the Tokyo Dome. “Good people shouldn’t have to fight so hard and risk their lives for well-being and respect. And I hope our leaders are listening; I hope you’re listening to us ask you to change your course of action swiftly and have mercy on everyone in our country. At a time where it doesn’t feel like it’s easy to have hope, it is my community and my friends, my family that hold me up.”

She acknowledged that her speech was unusual since she was in another country, but maintained that the subject was important to her, to people around the world, and to people in the United States. “In a couple of days, I’m gonna be heading home, and my heart is aching thinking about the people — the children, the families, all over America — who are being mercilessly targeted by ICE,” she said to loud applause. “I’m thinking about all of their pain and how their lives are being destroyed right in front of us. I’m also thinking about Minnesota and everyone back at home who is living in so much fear and searching for answers on what we all should do. When entire communities lose their sense of safety and belonging, it breaks something in all of us.”

She asked the crowd to “stand with us” and dedicated “Come to Mama,” a song off Joanne on which she begs everyone to love one another, “to everyone who is suffering, to everyone who’s feeling alone and helpless, anyone who’s lost a loved one and is having a difficult time, an impossible time, seeing when the end will be near.”

Lady Gaga has one more concert in Tokyo on Friday before she returns to the States to attend the Grammy Awards, where she’s been nominated seven times. She’ll embark on another North American leg of Mayhem Ball tour dates on Valentine’s Day with a two-night stand at Glendale, Arizona’s Desert Diamond Arena. She has two dates scheduled for St. Paul, Minnesota in April.

ICE agents, who have swarmed Minnesota’s biggest city since late December, killed Renee Good, an unarmed U.S. citizen, on Jan. 7. They also killed a man, Alex Pretti, on Jan. 24. State and federal authorities have disagreed on the circumstances around each death, and both killings have prompted wide outcry and protests in Minneapolis and around the world.

On Thursday, Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border czar,” told reporters that the president “wants this fixed.” “I’m not here because the federal government has carried out this mission perfectly,” he said at a press conference, according to The New York Times. “Certain improvements could and should be made.” A handful of states, including New York and California, have made efforts to push back against ICE.

Celebrities have also been outspoken against ICE. Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Pedro Pascal have all condemned the government office’s actions. Bruce Springsteen responded to the recent killings by releasing a new song, “Streets of Minneapolis.” And Tom Morello will lead a protest concert in the city, dubbed A Concert of Solidarity & Resistance to Defend Minnesota, on Friday with help from Rise Against, Al di Meola, and others.