Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny has confirmed that he excluded the United States from his forthcoming world tour due to fears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents might target his concerts. In an interview with i-D magazine, the three-time Grammy winner said he and his team were 'very concerned' about the possibility of raids at his performances, given his prominence as a Latino musician.
The 31-year-old artist, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, cited the unprecedented Ice raids across the US since Donald Trump's re-election, with the agency now aiming for a minimum of 3,000 arrests per day. 'There was the issue of – like, fucking Ice could be outside [my concert],' he told i-D. 'And it's something that we were talking about and very concerned about.'
Bad Bunny's decision comes amid increasing alarm over Ice arrests and deportations. On Monday, the US Supreme Court granted federal agents the power to stop people in Los Angeles simply for speaking Spanish or appearing Latino, a move immigration advocates say has 'effectively legalised racial profiling'. Latino gatherings across the US have been cancelled for fear of becoming Ice targets, including Philadelphia's Carnaval de Puebla and a Colombian independence day festival in Kansas.
Bad Bunny, who has been vocally critical of Ice on Instagram, previously told Variety that performing in the US was 'unnecessary'. He noted that US fans could see him at his current residency in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated US territory where he was born and lives, before his global tour begins in November. The tour, supporting his sixth album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, starts on 21 November in the Dominican Republic and concludes next July in Belgium.
