Radiohead, the British rock band lashed out at Trump’s ICE for featuring their song without consent in a promotional video. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency released a video on 19 February in which it used a version of Radiohead’s song “Let Down.”
Amid President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown, ICE’s immigration enforcement tactics have drawn massive criticism by human rights advocates. Radiohead in a statement to media outlets said, “We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take it down. It ain’t funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don’t get to appropriate it without a fight,” reuters reported.
In the video, one can hear Let Down song’s soundtrack. This ICE video depicts montage of victims of violence who were attributed to illegal immigrants in the US.
According to Radiohead, the song was used without the band’s permission.
What is ICE?
Formed in March 2003, as a part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security. This agency was created following the September 11 attacks for “Protecting National Security and Upholding Public Safety.”
This controversial agency became the largest and most well-funded federal law enforcement agency in US during Trump’s second term following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025.
ICE plans to expand its detention centers
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion to convert warehouses nationwide into immigrant detention centers, The Washington Post reported. According to documents shared with New Hampshire’s governor and posted on the state’s website on 12 February, ICE intends to acquire 16 buildings across the country and retrofit each to hold 1,000 to 1,500 detainees as regional processing centers.
