Rapper Cardi B, 33, stood on an elevated platform at the opening night of her Little Miss Drama tour on 11 February, asked if there were any Guatemalans or Mexicans in the crowd, and then made a promise that would be on every news site by morning.
'IfICEcomes in here, we gon' jump they as^e^,' she told the sold-out audience at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California. 'I've got some bear mace in the back. They ain't taking my fans.'
The arena erupted. The clip landed on TMZ within hours. And then, in a move that nobody involved in running a federal department's social media account should probably be proud of, theDepartment of Homeland Security(DHS) weighed in.
The agency's official X account quoted TMZ's post and replied: 'As long as she doesn't drug and rob our agents, we'll consider that an improvement over her past behaviour.'
That was a reference to a 2019 controversy in which an old video resurfaced of Cardi B admitting she had drugged and robbed men during her years working as an exotic dancer, before her music career took off. She later expressed regret.
It was a federal government agency, responsible for counterterrorism and border security, publicly mocking a pop star's past on social media. On a Wednesday evening. The post racked up millions of views.
'If we talking about drugs let's talk about Epstein and friends drugging underage girls to rape them,' she wrote on X. 'Why yall don't wanna talk about the Epstein files?'
The exchange has now been viewed more than 14 million times across both accounts. It is still climbing.
The remarks came during Act III of the concert set, after Cardi sang part ofComo La Florby the late Tejano star Selena Quintanilla. She then moved into her hitI Like Itand addressed the crowd directly about immigration enforcement,Billboard and Consequence of Sound reported.
The tone was half-joking, half-defiant. The crowd treated it as a rallying cry. Concert footage showed fans cheering throughout.
Source: International Business Times UK
