Zach Bryan is now in the crosshairs of the Department of Homeland Security, sorta … officials at the federal agency are clapping back at his critique of ICE in his latest song, TMZ reports.
Tricia McLaughlin — DHS Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs — took aim at the Grammy-winning country star’s music in response to Zach Bryan releasing a snippet of a new, untitled track on Instagram Friday, slamming Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
McLaughlin told TMZ … “Stick to ‘Pink Skies'” — referring to Zach’s famous tune about kids who return home to tell their parents they’re proud of how they grew up.
In his untitled snippet, Zach Bryan sings that the cops are “cocky motherf***ers” and that ICE has plans to “bust down your door” … which seems pretty darn negative. Zach also sings that kids around the country are feeling “all scared and all alone,” adding there are “middle fingers rising.”
ICE — which falls under the DHS umbrella — has come under fire lately because of its alleged heavy-handed enforcement tactics, arrest techniques, and alleged inhuman conditions inside its detention facilities.
But, McLaughlin pushed back on the “inhuman conditions” part, telling us, “We have higher ICE detention facility standards than most prisons holding US citizens.”
Zach probably summed up the situation best in Friday’s IG post, with a caption that reads “the fading of the red white and blue.”