Sabrina Carpenter.
Photo: Dia Dipasupil/FilmMagic
Sabrina Carpenter would like to ice out ICE. The pop star was repulsed by a video that Immigration and Customs Enforcement posted on social media using her song “Juno.” “@WhiteHouse this video is evil and disgusting,” Carpenter wrote on X in the replies to the original post. “Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.” In a reference to her her Short n’ Sweet tour, in which Carpenter would do a new pose each night, the video depicts ICE agents tackling people to the ground and handcuffing them with their faces pressed down while looped audio of Carpenter’s chipper voice sings, “Have you ever tried this one?”
The White House responded on December 2 with a statement full of Carpenter references. “Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: We won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Axios. “Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?” The final phrase is a reference to Carpenter’s song “Manchild,” which uses the “stupid, or is it slow?” line to critique men Carpenter is dating.
But the administration shouldn’t be surprised: Carpenter’s opinions on ICE are well documented. She’d previously asked her fans to join her in donating to the National Immigration Law Center via her Instagram Stories. ICE, meanwhile, has not learned from earlier this year, on September 24, when Theo Von called out the Department of Homeland security for using his audio or when the many musicians from Adele to the White Stripes told Trump not to use their music. As of now, the agency has yet to take down the Carpenter clip. Maybe ICE is … useless!
