Zach Bryan fans might be excited for his new music, but certain United States government officials definitely aren’t.
More specifically, Tricia McLaughlin — the assistant secretary of public affairs to the Department of Homeland Security — isn’t happy with the country singer-songwriter’s lyric about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a new song teaser he posted recently to Instagram. The line in question finds Bryan lamenting, “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door.”
In response, McLaughlin told TMZ on Tuesday (Oct. 7) that Bryan should “stick to ‘Pink Skies,’” referring to the musician’s 2024 top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
Billboard has reached out to Bryan’s rep and the Dept. of Homeland Security for comment.
The DHS official’s comments come four days after the Grammy winner posted the snippet of an unreleased song, which he captioned, “the fading of the red white and blue.”
“I heard the cops came/ Cocky motherf–kers, ain’t they?” Bryan sings on the full verse in question. “And ICE is gonna come bust down your door/ Try to build a house no one builds no more/ But I got a telephone/ Kids are all scared and all alone … The middle finger’s rising, and it won’t stop showing/ Got some bad news/ The fading of the red, white and blue.”
The lyrics quickly sparked backlash from supporters of the Donald Trump administration’s forceful crackdowns on immigration by way of mass deportations carried out by ICE raids in different parts of the U.S. On the other hand, Bryan’s song aligns him with numerous other musicians who have spoken up against the country’s treatment of immigrants this past year.
One of those stars is Bad Bunny, who was recently unveiled as the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show performer. The news also got a response from the DHS, with adviser Corey Lewandowski saying that ICE agents will be present for the Puerto Rican rapper’s performance at the big game.
“There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandowski’s said on The Benny Show on Oct. 1. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else.”
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